Breakthrough Brain-Computer Interface Enables Paralyzed Woman to Speak through Digital Avatar

Researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley have developed a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) that allows a woman with severe paralysis from a brainstem stroke to speak through a digital avatar. The BCI uses electrodes implanted on the woman's brain to capture and decode her brain signals, enabling her to communicate. The researchers trained an AI model to recognize and encode her words, improving the accuracy and speed of the system. They also developed a machine learning model to merge the digital avatar with the woman's brain signals for facial recognition. The researchers are working on a wireless version of the BCI for future improvements.