在大脑中植入芯片，不需要键盘就可以打字啦

Could the future of office work be sitting inside a microchip smaller than a dime? Researchers from Brown University say a chip inserted into the brain can allow people to type without the need for a keyboard.

未来的办公室工作会不会坐在一个比一角硬币还小的芯片里?布朗大学的研究人员说，插入大脑的芯片可以让人们不需要键盘就可以打字。

The implant captures brain signals associated with handwriting and turns them into text on a computer screen in real time. Like something out of science fiction, just thinking about the hand movements which produce written letters is enough for the tech to make it a reality.

这种植入物可以捕捉与手写有关的大脑信号，并将其实时转换为电脑屏幕上的文本。就像科幻小说里的情节一样，只要想想手部运动产生的书面文字就足以让这项技术成为现实。

More importantly, the technology could restore the ability to communicate for people who suffer from paralysis following an accident or other condition. The participant testing the hardware was able to type up to 90 characters a minute, more than double the previous record.

更重要的是，这项技术可以恢复那些在事故或其他情况下瘫痪的人的通讯能力。测试的参与者每分钟最多能输入90个字符，比之前的记录翻了一番还多。

“An important mission of our BrainGate consortium research is to restore rapid, intuitive communication for people with severe speech or motor impairments,” says Dr. Leigh Hochberg in a university release. “Frank’s demonstration of fast, accurate neural decoding of handwriting marks an exciting new chapter in the development of clinically useful neurotechnologies.”

“我们BrainGate联盟研究的一项重要任务是为严重语言或运动障碍的人恢复快速、直观的交流。”Leigh Hochberg博士在一份大学报告中说。“Frank的快速、准确的手写神经解码技术，标志着临床有用的神经技术的发展翻开了令人兴奋的新篇章。”

It has taken the scientists several years to fine tune their technology so it can capture and interpret different brain signals. Earlier versions relied on people pointing to and clicking letters on a virtual keyboard, but they could only write about 40 characters per minute.

科学家们花了几年时间对他们的技术进行微调，使之能够捕捉和解释不同的大脑信号。早期版本依赖于人们在虚拟键盘上指向和点击字母，并且每分钟只能写40个字符。

“We want to find new ways of letting people communicate faster,” says co-author Dr. Frank Willett of Stanford University “This new system uses both the rich neural activity recorded by intracortical electrodes and the power of language models that, when applied to the neurally decoded letters, can create rapid and accurate text.”

“我们希望找到让人们更快交流的新方法，”合著者之一、斯坦福大学的弗兰克·威利特博士说，“这个新系统既利用了皮质内电极记录的丰富神经活动，又利用了语言模型的力量，当应用于经神经解码的字母时，可以产生快速准确的文本。”

Study authors then asked their volunteer to imagine writing so the sensors could record the patterns his brain produced with each letter. The study reveals the paralyzed man could copy sentences and answer questions at a similar speed to someone of the same age typing on a smartphone.

作者让志愿者想象写作，这样传感器就可以记录下他大脑产生的每一个字母的模式。这项研究显示，瘫痪的男子可以模仿句子和回答问题，速度与同龄人在智能手机上打字的速度相似。

The findings appear in the journal Nature.

该研究结果发表在《自然》杂志上。