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Module 8 Journal Entry

 What surprises have you encountered specific to your research question?

Hands down, the most surprising fact I encountered was how slow it was communicating with AAC devices and specifically with BCIs.  Prior to this research, I would see Stephen Hawking on TV interviews, talk shows, and snippets of his “live” lectures.  What I didn’t realize that his “live” speeches were absolutely pre-meditated and scripted.  The questions were provided beforehand to give him ample time to compose an answer and have that ready to go when he pressed the button on his system.  This was probably the case even during “live” tapings, where the interviewer would ask a question and Hawking would have a response ready to go. With the magic of editing sometimes, it would appear as if Hawking and the interviewer were having a normal conversation in real time.  One article I read said that in the beginning, Hawking’s selection rate was 15 words per minute (Medeiros, 2015), and this was when he still had mobility to grip a clicker in his hand to select words.  As his ALS progressed his system had to be modified to the infrared beam on his “cheek switch” and his word selection rate slowed down to two words per minute.

In another article, a study was conducted on BCI systems and some of the selection rates went even slower by character.  A healthy individual attached to a BCI system had a selection rate of 33.3 characters per minute, whereas a person with ALS went as slow as 1.5-4.1 characters per minute (Brumberg et al., 2018).  Communicating with AACs is probably frustratingly slow, but at the same time it’s probably the only way for their voice to be heard.  Just look at all of the literature and speeches Hawking had given us up until his death in 2018.

Sources:

Brumberg, J. S., Pitt, K. M., Mantie-Kozlowski, A., & Burnison, J. D. (2018). Brain–Computer Interfaces for Augmentative and Alternative Communication: A Tutorial. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_AJSLP-16-0244

Medeiros, J. (2015, January 13). How Intel Gave Stephen Hawking a Voice. Wired. https://www.wired.com/2015/01/intel-gave-stephen-hawking-voice/

 

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