The sounds of silence: New device could create words out of thoughts

Study author Gopala Anumanchipalli holds an example of the gadget that could literally give voice to the voiceless. Trapped inside their bodies, stroke patients may be able to think – but not speak. But now, according to a new study, a device could one day literally give a voice to the voiceless. "For the first time, this study demonstrates that we can generate entire spoken sentences based on an individual's brain activity," said study lead author Edward Chang, a professor of neurological surgery at the University of California at San Francisco. In fact, he said the technology could potentially restore the voices of people who have lost the ability to speak due to paralysis and other forms of neurological damage such as from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease).