Pre-reading questions:
- What is the most helpful invention for you? Please explain your answer.
- How do you think technological advances affect people’s lives?
Vocabulary:
- encode /en-KOHD/
- vocal /VOH-kuhl/
- epileptic /ep-uh-LEP-tik/
- seizure /SEE-zher/
- outcome /OUT-kuhm/
[verb] to put information into a form in which it can be stored, and which can only be read using special technology or knowledge
The new manager asked his associates to encode the documents into his Google Drive.
[adjective] relating to or produced by the voice, either in singing or speaking
Ryan Cayabyab is one of the most talented vocal coaches in the Philippines.
[adjective] a very sudden attack of an illness in which someone becomes unconscious or develops violent movements
Samirah’s epileptic seizure is a complete liability to him but he never let her feel that it was.
[noun] a very sudden attack of an illness in which someone becomes unconscious or develops violent movements
The sensitivity to fever of a child’s developing brain can sometimes cause seizures to occur.
[noun] a result or effect of an action, situation, etc
Not taking care of your physical health might have a serious outcome in the future.
The study worked with five volunteers with epileptic seizures. Scientists recorded the movements in the language-producing region of the volunteers’ brains as they read several hundred sentences aloud. The computer models will then translate the data into speech. Though the outcome of this study was successful, it will take years of further work before this technology is made available for patients’ use.
Comprehension Questions:
- What did the scientists use to help the computer program turn brain signals into speech?
- How can the device work out what a person wants to say?
- In what scientific journal was the study published in?
- What did the scientists record to translate the data into spoken words?
- When will the computer program be available for patients’ use?
Discussion Questions:
- What do you think about the news that technology can now translate thoughts into speech? Please explain your answer.
- Do you think it is more reliable to translate our thoughts by encoding the movement of the vocal parts of the body than predicting the speech sound? Please explain your answer.
- Do you think this computer program will only be useful for people who have speech disabilities? Please explain your answer.
- In your own opinion, how beneficial this breakthrough to humans?
- Do you know other technologies that translate thoughts into speech? Please give examples.