So if an implant can make the deaf hear, and a computer can make the mute speak. Why cant we make a device that "speaks" directly to the brain, and bypass the computer having to make sound?
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ANSWERS: 1
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Such implants connect to the auditory nerve. They, in essence, replace the nerve signals transmitted by the ear so that the person can hear sound. They do NOT directly "plug into" the brain. What they do is convert sound to electrical impulses that the auditory nerve can send to the brain. *** This same sort of technology COULD be used to allow a computer to communicate directly to the auditory nerve. You would have to add an antenna (think: blue tooth or Wifi) and you would have to have special software that would translate words to radio signals that would be translated by the device to electrical signals delivered by the implant to the auditory nerve. *** So, we CAN do that...but that's not an incredibly useful device compared to the "regular" cochlear implant, which translates sound for the recipient. Since the computer can produce sound, AND sound is produced by very many other things, the implant that converts sound-to-nerve signals is much more broadly useful than is the (hypothetical) implant that converts radio signals to nerve signals.
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Curiosity killed the cat. Thank you. You did correct my misuse of the the mechanics involved in implementing this device and, even took it a step further and broke it down how it would have to be done. I do admit I am ignorant of a lot of technicalities that are involved in this theory. If it can be done, then it probably has been done. Wouldn't you say?
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