UCLA engineers have developed innovative technology that could help people with communication problems, which could eventually revolutionize the way we communicate for those undergoing laryngeal cancer surgeries or those with dysfunctional vocal cords, Lab reported. Manager.
It is reported in the journal Nature Communications that said device, which is approximately similar to a square inch, is applied to the epidermis outside the throat and uses bioelectric signals from the muscles of the larynx to generate articulate speech with great precision, reaching almost 95%. .
Jun Chen and his team designed the wearable device which is composed of a self-powered sensor component with an actuator component, each of which consists of silicone and magnetically induced layers.
The sensing device, which detects the movement of the laryngeal muscle through the application of magnetoelastic technology, converts them into electrical signals, which are further processed by a machine learning algorithm, resulting in speech signals. The drive supplies current to the motor to convert the signals into output voice.
It is extremely small in size (7 grams) and only 0.06 inches thick, so it is barely noticeable and is secured to the throat with biocompatible tape. Unlike existing solutions that can be complex or intrusive, this non-intrusive device is a practical tool for those looking to navigate treatment or recovery periods.
In testing a healthy population, the device showed excellent accuracy, correctly matching vocal fold movements to predetermined sentences that still allowed individuals to communicate without sound.
The research team is expected to achieve further improvements in machine learning to expand the device's vocabulary. This will be followed by trials with people affected by speech disorders, which could change the lives of millions of people facing speech difficulties.
