Hawking’s thoughts to be translated into speech

Scientists in the US say they hope to soon be able to translate Professor Stephen Hawking’s brainwaves.

Professor Philip Low has been studying the brain patters of the revered British physicist, who came to prominence with his best-selling book A Brief History of Time in the 1980’s and has been in a wheel-chair since being diagnosed with motor neuron disease when he was 21.

It is hoped the research will allow Hawking’s thoughts to be preserved, since the current system that allows him to speak through the movement of his right cheek will cease to work as his condition continues to deteriorate.

Professor Low’s new system, dubbed the iBrain, would be placed on Hawking’s head and record brainwaves with electroencephalograph readings. Describing how it works, Professor Low said: “An analogy would be that as you walk away from a concert hall where there’s music from a range of instruments.

“As you go further away you will stop hearing high frequency elements like the violin and viola, but still hear the trombone and the cello. Well, the further you are away from the brain the more you lose the high frequency patterns. What we have done is found them and teased them back using the algorithm so they can be used.”

It is not just Hawking who could benefit from this research, however. Sufferers of ‘locked-in syndrome’, which prevents patients from communicating despite having full-consciousness, have long been without a cure or proper treatment. Unless they have the wealth of Professor Hawking, it is unlikely they would be able to communicate either.