Synthetic Speech Generated from Brain Recordings

Synthetic Speech Generated from Brain Recordings

New Technology is a Stepping Stone to a Neural Speech Prosthesis, Researchers Say

By

Nicholas Weiler

A state-of-the-art brain-machine interface created by UC San Francisco neuroscientists can generate natural-sounding synthetic speech by using brain activity to control a virtual vocal tract – an anatomically detailed computer simulation including the lips, jaw, tongue and larynx. Study senior author Edward Chang, MD, has been studying how the brain produces and analyzes speech for over a decade and aims to develop a speech prosthesis to restore the voices of individuals who have lost speech to paralysis and other forms of neurological damage. Virtual Vocal Tract Improves Naturalistic Speech Synthesis

The research was led by Gopala Anumanchipalli, PhD, a speech scientist, and Josh Chartier, a bioengineering graduate student in the Chang lab.

Source: www.ucsf.edu