A Helmet That Can Read and Transcribe Your Thoughts

Scientists have developed the world’s first mind-reading helmet that deciphers brainwaves into readable words, to read the wearer’s thoughts.

An advancement in the care of patients rendered silent due to stroke or paralysis has been achieved. This helmet is equipped with sensors that monitor certain electrical activity in the brain as the wearer thinks, transforming these thoughts into words.

The technology was created by a team at the University of Technology in Sydney. According to the Daily Mail, they believe it could alter the care of patients who have lost their ability to speak following a stroke or paralysis.

Through the application, an individual pondering a sentence on the screen, will have it then translated by the AI model supporting the technology. The results are very similar to the original thoughts.

Guidance Through Thought Alone

The team sees that this technology will enable a new form of seamless control of devices such as electronic limbs and robots, allowing humans to provide guidance merely through thought.

Lead researcher Professor CT Lin commented, “This research represents a pioneering effort in translating raw EEG waves directly into language.”

Previously, translating brain signals into language necessitated surgery to implant electrodes in the brain, as seen with Elon Musk’s Neuralink, or the use of an MRI machine, which is expensive and impractical for daily use.

Trying to Reach 90% Accuracy

To test this technology, CT Lin and his team conducted experiments with 29 participants. Each participant was shown a sentence or phrase on the screen and asked to think about reading it. The AI model then displayed the translation based on the participant’s brainwave translation.

The team reported that the current accuracy of the translation is about 40%, but they are striving to improve this rate to reach 90%.