[tbenst]

This is a super cool device. Note that the decoding is highly limited: they decode into one of five different sentences. This is easier than five words for example as there is more information to distinguish.

Unfortunately the media is blowing this way of out proportion as the larynx alone does not contain sufficient information to decode silent speech.

If you also sense the lips, tongue articulators, and jaw, then general English decoding becomes possible with high accuracy (eg see our recent work here: https://x.com/tbenst/status/1767952614157848859). It’s not in the preprint but I’ve done experiments with only the larynx recorded and performance is pretty abysmal on even a 10 word vocabulary—-hence why they did a five sentence task.

[ImHereToVote]

I bet if you listened to the feedback you could teach yourself to talk using the larynx and surrounding muscles.

[jvanderbot]

Why can't the muscles of the larnex and perhaps chest / diaphragm, be monitored and mapped to vocal chord noises, rather than full speech? Just put the noise in the throat and let the rest of the body make it work.

[irviss]

> If you also sense the lips, tongue articulators, and jaw, then general English decoding becomes possible with high accuracy

A bit OT but I see this frequently and I'm curious. Why do you English speakers (or just a US phenomenon?) tend to use the word "English" instead of "language", "linguistic" or one of its related words to refer to a general concept?

[x1798DE]

Not OP, but as a native English speaker and former scientist (though not in this area), I would interpret "x does y on English tasks" to mean "we tested this in English and don't know if the effect generalizes to other languages".

[roenxi]

I'd speculate English speakers are used to being part of a society where non-English speakers are present and politically important. It is polite not to assume that English = language. Even on the British Isles English isn't a universal thing. Let alone somewhere like America where it isn't even native.

"Language" just doesn't mean "English". In Australia if someone is talking about "language" on its own I'd assume they're Aboriginal advocates.

[khazhoux]

This is your misperception.

In the instances where a person says "English" in this kind of context, it catches your attention and you infer that the person is an English-speaker, and possibly American.

But when a person uses the generic word "language", you don't notice it.

This leads you to believe that English speakers "tend to use the word English," when that's not the case necessarily.

I don't know what this perceptual fallacy is called, but there's probably a word. In English :-)

[atopal]

There are about 6000 spoken languages around the world with an extreme variety in how they produce meaning. How could you make sweeping statements about all of them?

[johnisgood]

I have not noticed this. I just assume that they are specifically talking about a language, in this case: English.