18 years after a stroke left her paralyzed, a woman can speak again thanks to a brain implant with AI.
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In 2005, Ann Johnson was 30 years old, working as a math and physical education teacher, and leading a quiet life with her husband and two children, but everything changed overnight.
Johnson suffered a severe stroke that left her with locked-in syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes total paralysis except for the muscles that control eye movement.
Now, 18 years after the stroke, Johnson has regained the ability to speak thanks to an experimental technology that translates her brain signals into words, which are spoken through a digital avatar.
The technology, developed by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, USA, uses a set of 253 electrodes implanted on the surface of Johnson’s brain in areas associated with speech and language.
The device intercepts brain signals and sends them to a computer, which uses AI algorithms to translate these signals into words and phrases, which are then spoken by a digital avatar displayed on a TV screen.
Everything Johnson thinks is translated to the machine and then expressed by the avatar, which reproduces a copy of her voice recorded years ago during a 15-minute toast she gave at her wedding.
In the moving video released by UCSF, the team explains the entire procedure, and we see Johnson speaking with her husband for the first time in a long time.
This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
