--- title: "Scientists Debut System to Translate Thoughts Directly Into Text" description: "Researchers say they've built a system that can translate brain signals directly into text — allow users to think text directly into a computer." date: "2020-03-31" modified: "2020-03-31" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-system-translate-thoughts-text" categories: - "Brain" - "Health & Medicine" - "Neuroscience and Brain" tags: - "brain computer interfaces" - "mind reading" - "neuroscience" - "the digest" --- # Scientists Debut System to Translate Thoughts Directly Into Text ![Researchers say they've built a system that can translate brain signals directly into text — allow users to think text directly into a computer.]() *\Image: Victor Tangermann\* ## Brain Reader Researchers say they've built a system that can translate brain signals directly into text — a promising step toward a "speech prosthesis" that could effectively allow you to think text directly into a computer. "We are not there yet," University of California researcher Joseph Makin [told *The Guardian*](), "but we think this could be the basis of a speech prosthesis." ## AI Power Makin and his collaborators described the new system in [a paper]() published in the journal *Nature Neuroscience.* Basically, they recruited four epilepsy patients who had already had electrode arrays implanted into their brains for monitoring purposes. They asked the participants to repeatedly read sentences aloud, while collecting neural information — a dataset they then used to train an algorithm to interpret the signals even when the subjects weren't reading out loud. ## Locked In The system still has weaknesses — most notably that it works best on sentences it's already been trained on. But its accuracy is impressive, *The Guardian* reports, with an error rate of only about three percent, which is slightly lower than that of human transcribers. According to the newspaper, the researchers behind the system hope it could be used as the basis for a communication device for people who are unable to type or speak due to locked in syndrome or similar conditions. **READ MORE:** [ Scientists develop AI that can turn brain activity into text]() \[*The Guardian*\] **More on brain-computer interfaces:** [*Facebook Just Bought a Brain-Computer Interface Startup*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()