This technology can help people with speech difficulties or disabilities to communicate, and it has exciting potential.
Artificial Intelligence Supported Elastic Patch Turns Neck Movements into Words
Hello everyone, we wish you a good reading,
I came across a revolutionary development for the voice disability. A biomedical engineering team at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) has developed an artificial intelligence-powered elastic patch that measures neck muscle movements. The technology aims to help people with speech difficulties or disabilities communicate and has exciting potential.
The research team designed this wearable device that works by placing a thin patch on the neck. The device precisely measures neck movements and transmits them to an external processor. The processor converts these signals into words and then plays them back as sound. I think this work led by Jun Chen offers an important solution for individuals who have difficulty communicating.
The working principle of the device is also quite interesting. By converting muscle movements into electrical signals, the material is able to express mechanical vibrations with sound. However, I should mention that the current prototype has limited performance; at the moment, it can only use five predetermined sentences. These include basic phrases such as “Hello, how are you today?”. The device was trained on the neck movements of individuals without speech impairments, which is likely to affect the user experience.
The development of such patch technologies can accelerate the production processes of wearable health products. For this reason, this is one of the new applications that I emphasize and take note of the most among the developments in 2024. In particular, the potential of this device to facilitate communication for individuals with speech difficulties or disabilities could make our products more inclusive. Also, such innovations offer opportunities to increase independence in users' daily lives.
These developments in the field of wearable health technologies can be considered as an important step towards improving the user experience and providing solutions to social problems.
We wish you all a good week! We are following the developments in this field and look forward to sharing them with you as they become new.
Eylem Sezgin - Biomedical Engineer
For further information: https://spectrum.ieee.org/assistive-tech-voice-patch
