New device can hear words in your head and respond back

Every one of us has certain things that we silently say in our heads. Researchers have recently created a device that can actually read a person’s thoughts and will talk back to them without the use of any words said aloud.

Described as an intelligence-augmentation device, it is called ‘AlterEgo’ has been created by (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) MIT researchers that reads our mind and identifies nonverbal thoughts. The device is worn on face that loop’s around the user’s ear following through their jawline and then attaches itself underneath the mouth.

Video Credits: MIT Media Lab

AlterEgo can measure the neuromuscular signals that set off when a person sub-vocalizes or says words in their head. The electrodes in the device help picking up the signals when someone verbalizes in their head. It also includes ‘bone-conduction headphones’ that deliver face vibrations delivered the inner ear. The purpose of the headphones is to effectively talk to the user without interrupting their ongoing conversation or hearing. Engadget explains, the signals are then sent to a computer that makes use of neural networks to differentiate words.

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Lead author Arnav Kapur explained, “The motivation for this was to build an IA device — an intelligence-augmentation device. Our idea was: Could we have a computing platform that’s more internal, that melds human and machine in some ways and that feels like an internal extension of our own cognition?”

Till now, the device has been used for navigation, asking time, and disclosing the opponent’s move during chess, basic multiplication and addition problems, with the help of limited vocabularies of 20 words. The device has 92% accuracy with these 20 words only, and researchers hope that it will advance with time, reported The Verge.

“We’re in the middle of collecting data, and the results look nice. I think we’ll achieve full conversation some day,” said Kapur.