Director: Dr. Lee M. Miller
The Speech Neuroengineering and Cybernetics Laboratory (Miller Lab) is located in the Center for Mind & Brain (http://mindbrain.ucdavis.edu) at the University of California, Davis. Our research uses behavior, biosignals (EEG, EMG), and machine learning to: i) understand the basic brain mechanisms that support comprehension, speech production, and manual communication gestures, ii) diagnose how different individuals fail to comprehend or communicate, and iii) treat impairments with assistive devices that cope with dynamic, realistic situations across different ability levels and across the life span.
Why we’re here
To improve hearing loss. Half a billion people worldwide have hearing loss and struggle to understand speech every day, particularly in noisy environments. Countless more listeners with “normal “hearing also have trouble with speech communication, and clinicians do not understand why. Depression, loneliness, and social anxiety are common conditions afflicting those (particularly older adults) who suffer this reduced ability to communicate. Our research aims to provide better diagnostics and assistive devices for these individuals.
To restore speech. As many as 100 million people worldwide have lost the ability to produce natural, comprehensible speech. The causes are many: head/neck cancer, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury, ALS, etc. Unfortunately, there is presently no way to restore natural speech ability in these individuals. We are developing an assistive device that enables fluent, own-voice speech production, so they can speak again with their loved ones.
To build fair human-computer interfaces. Human-machine interfaces are playing an increasing role in everyday life and medical practice (smart watches, self-driving cars, wearable activity monitors, advanced prosthetics…). Unfortunately, the machine learning and AI algorithms that power these interactions can be biased and unfair, leading to limited uptake in certain populations. We are interested in designing approaches for communication biosignal interfaces (neuromuscular, audio, video) that work in an unbiased way, no matter if you are old or young, skinny or heavy, healthy or impaired. We want the revolution in human-computer communication interfaces to be fair, safe, and universally beneficial.
Results from our research are leading to practical solutions that will enhance quality of life for millions. Our research has been made possible by the generous support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) including the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), the National Science Foundation (NSF), Google, Meta/Facebook, the Child Family Fund for the CMB, Starkey Hearing Technologies, Intel Corporation, the Department of Defense, CITRIS and the Banatao Institute, and Accenture.
Please support our efforts!
If you’d like to support our efforts to understand and treat communication challenges (hearing loss, speech production impairments, manual motor differences), please contact Professor Miller directly, or visit our Center for Mind & Brain Fund page and indicate that your donation is intended for the Miller Lab. Thank you!