IIT-M’s AI tech to convert brain signals of speech impaired

The other major application is that the researchers can potentially interpret nature’s signals such as plant photosynthesis process or their response to external forces.

A team of researchers led by Dr Vishal Nandigana, Assistant Professor, Fluid Systems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, is working on this area of research. “Electrical signals including brain signal in general, are waveforms which are decoded to meaningful information using physical law or mathematical transforms such as Fourier transform or Laplace transform. These physical laws and mathematical transforms are science-based languages discovered by renowned scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton and Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier,” said Dr Vishal, lead researcher.

Elaborating on this, Dr Vishal said that the output result is the ionic current, which represents the flow of ions which are charged particles.

He added that these electrically driven ionic current signals are worked on to be interpreted as human language meaning speech. “This would tell us what the ions are trying to communicate with us. When we succeed with this effort, we will get electrophysiological data from the neurologists to get brain signals of speech impaired humans to know what they are trying to communicate,” the researcher said.

The researchers of IIT Madras are also working on how these real data signals can be decoded into human language such as English and if the real data signal can be interpreted as a simple human language that all human beings can understand.

Researchers pointed out that brain signals are typically electrical signals which are wave-like patterns with spikes, humps and crusts which can be converted into simple human language meaning speech using Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning algorithms. This enabled the researchers to read direct electrical signals of the brain.