We go back in the NPR archives to find a 30-year-old progress report on the development of computer speech from NPR correspondent Ira Flatow. Things have come along quite a bit since then. Well, ...

People read personality into a synthetic voice even when they know that it’s made by a computer. What’s more, if the “voice” mirrors their personalities, people will like and be more readily ...

The brain surgeon began as he always does, making an incision in the scalp and gently spreading it apart to expose the skull. He then drilled a 3-inch circular opening through the bone, down to the ...

Scientists have developed a device that can translate thoughts about speech into spoken words in real time. Although it’s still experimental, they hope the brain-computer interface could someday help ...

More and more, we can get computers to do things for us by talking to them. A computer can call your mother when you tell it to, find you a pizza place when you ask for one, or write out an email that ...

Losing the ability to speak after a brain injury or due to disease leaves a person unable to express their thoughts, feelings and ideas, and can be incredibly isolating. In two recently published ...

We get it. We also watched Star Trek and thought how cool it would be to talk to our computer. From Kirk setting a self-destruct sequence, to Scotty talking into a mouse, or Picard ordering Earl Grey, ...