Facebook’s New Technology Could Let You Communicate With Your Thoughts

Jul. 31, 2019

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), claims to have been able to prove the aforementioned theory with three epilepsy patients voluntarily implanted with electrodes. Published over the weekend onNature, the study seems to successfully demonstrate that brain activity recorded while speaking could, indeed, be decoded into speech in real-time, but only as long as it’s among a limited set of answers in response to predetermined questions.

Facebook is now funding a new, long-term research project that will test the theory among volunteers who cannot speak. The company, however, is in no illusion about how long it might take for the study to yield results. In a recentinterview to CNN, Mark Chevillet, a research director at Facebook Reality Labs, said that he doesn’t expect any definitive results within the next decade.“This is a long-term research program … We expect that to take upwards of 10 years”, he said.

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