
"The Hawk to talk via iBrain hacked headspace"
New low. If you want to write for the Daily Star, then go do it.
Next month Professor Stephen Hawking will provide details of how a brain-scanning headcap will enable him to communicate more easily. At the Francis Crick Memorial Conference on July 7 in Cambridge, Hawking – and Dr. Philip Low, formerly of Stanford University's School of Medicine - will show how a non-invasive portable …
Yes, The Hawk! He is an intellectual force to be reckoned with and is right up there with The Hoff, The Heff and Chuck Norris!
Prof. Hawking also has a great sense of humor often shown during his lectures and, of course, his many TV appearances.
Furthermore I think The Reg is far above the Daily star. Go cry somewhere else, poopie-face!
The company who made them went out of business... I think they have one spare. Now people who have the prospect of losing their voice are offered the chance to record a large variety of words, so that a custom speech synthesiser can be built based on their voice.
I don't know whether they could use technique this for Stephen Hawking, or if they could reverse-engineer the existing unit directly. Anyone here care to hazard a guess at how tricky that might be?
Reverse engineering at a software level would be possible, I presume - it's always possible to reverse engineer a software algorithm if you're given enough time... they're trying: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21323-the-man-who-saves-stephen-hawkings-voice.html
Reverse engineering by sampling the audio might be possible, but unless the original sound generator is clearly predictable, it'll always sound something like a facsimile of the original - and an approximation of what's already a poor approximation of a human voice may leave a lot to be desired.
You can hear the sort sampling technology in something like Yamaha's Vocaloid singing generation software.
"The company who made them went out of business... I think they have one spare. Now people who have the prospect of losing their voice are offered the chance to record a large variety of words, so that a custom speech synthesiser can be built based on their voice."
Come on Darth Vader would be cool. He could go the Emperor and hook up a taser so he could shock people with the power of his mind. The possibilities would be endless
"Another chance to hear him explain that there's actually no black hole information paradox because, um, the multiverse or something. That's the ticket."
Translation:
"I'd like to hear him talk but I'm too stupid so I'll just watch Jerry Springer instead. Thats the ticket."
This will be cool, and once it's combined with the ability to control a powered wheelchair that'd be even more awesome. Though a cure for Motor Neurone disease, DMD and other conditions would be even cooler but this is great stuff and should make life a bit better (and cooler) for people with those and other disabilities in the meantime!
I certainly hope that this will lead to the freeing of people from locked in syndrome and the sheer horror of having to watch last weeks AM case and all these fuckwits saying life is sacred when they don't have to live it.
I'd imagine a couple of really good research students to work on this for a few years would be a lot cheaper than a couple of hours in the high court.
Apple vigorously lays claim to every product name beginning with the letter "i", regardless of trademark status or conceivable relevance to their fruity consumer electronics. You can bet that Dr. Low will be hearing from the lawyers in Cupertino about this blatant theft of Apple IP.
"Apple vigorously lays claim to every product name beginning with the letter "i", regardless of trademark status or conceivable relevance to their fruity consumer electronics."
Do you have any actual evidence to back that up, or are you extrapolating based on the three lawsuits you read about in The Register?
Apple either isn't going after everyone using i* names, or they have the worst lawyers in history, because I've seen a shitton of products / services that utilize the cliche, many in the electronics / software business.
I'm not exactly an Apple booster, but the mouth-foaming rhetoric is really getting old. And if you ARE going to foam at the mouth, ffs have *some* kind of basis for it.
@Thorne
Even worse, when you try to explain to them that you're in the right, they get you again!
You: I entirely disagree with the accusations of copyright infringement through use of the name iBrain. It is my intention to fight this all the way.
Apple: Ah-hah, another 14 counts. Your honour it's clearly will-ful infringement, triple damages please.
The scary thing is I had the same thought, would Apple wade in and sue?
Its a sad state when your first thought of a tech company is will they sue...
And the sadder thing is, they do actually produce some decent hardware and software, not revolutionary, but they certainly know how to take other peoples ideas and glue them together to make something greater than the sum of its parts... although they have been a bit slow on the screen size issue, the MAIN reason I never owned an iPhone is they are too tiny for mans hands!
I have rather large hands, and I find the iPhone more or less OK size wise. My thumb can reach every point on the screen surface while in one handed use - which as was pointed out somewhere else, is the reason that the iPhone is the size that it is.
You must have monster hands to find an iPhone too small.
Dweeb
If Crapple choose to put down what amounts to a humanitarian need, then they need a short sharp lesson.
Id like to see 1000 people turn up a the London Crapple store, each with a house brick in their holdall, and on the word "go" throw them through the crapple window and into the store.
The company providing this device has been around for a few years and the iBrain itself since 2010. The fellow who started it received a PHD for a one page thesis. The company leadership is him and three very experienced legal advisers. I doubt Apple will be suing him anytime soon.
Hmm.. if a brain-scanning head-cap has the possibility to enable him to communicate more easily then could it also be used for mobility? I'm thinking people who are paralysed from the neck down (incl. arm function).
I think it brain scanning tech works it'll be a huge leap in technology. Hopefully leading to brain controlled robotic devices / arms / legs.
I'm not sure what the deal is with the brain scanning stuff here - they've been doing it for years and years with things like pong-playing monkeys, etc. I know that some of the more complicated stuff (moving limbs, working artificial hands) has required implanted electrodes and their attendant problems, but in its simplest form - a direct replacement for the selection mechanism employed by Mr. Hawking's face - I don't see why this shouldn't be pretty much bolt-on tech even with headcap stuff.
I could be wrong, but based on 'thinking about moving his limbs' and other little bits in there, it certainly sounds as if this is essentially a four-bit (or so) discrete input device, not a miraculous thing that spits out audio straight from the subject's noggin.
(All that aside, as a guy who writes electronic music, let me tell you that if they DO find a way to get my 'invented' audio out of my head intact, they can start firing up the drills now, 'cos if I can turn my brain into a synthesizer, put me on the list. Trepanation without hesitation!)
So is the breakthrough here a marketing one rather than a science one, is it being explained badly by someone along the chain, or is there a genuine difficulty in commercializing this and making it practical for long-term usage that has been solved (also fits with the second option...)?
After they get the mind speach thing working flawlessly, they need to work on the wireless implants to the localized nerves in the arms and legs, so they can get the arms and feet working. That would be awesome. It may be possible to reanimate people with these conditions afterall.