KAYE: Every day on this show, we do a segment called the Big I. It's all about big new ideas and innovations. Well, how about giving people who unable to speak the ability to talk again? Imagine being able to speak with your mind, without moving your lips. We've heard about scientists putting electrodes in the brain to be able to move a robotic arm using just their mind. Well now, scientists are doing something similar with speech. One of the leading scientists in the field is Dr. Eric Leuthhardt of Washington University. He has developed a brain implant that allows doctors to track speech. He joins us live now from St. Louis. Doctor, thank you for being with us. First of all, while we take a look at some video that walks us through your research, tell us how this technology works.</s>DR. ERIC LEUTHHARDT, NEUROSURGEON, WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: : So, basically, we're talking electrodes to the brain and those are recording brain signals</s>KAYE: And how many words are we talking? Are we talking about complete sentences? I mean, how advanced is this?</s>LEUTHHARDT: No, it's -- we are -- right now, this is pretty much the early, early beginnings of this</s>KAYE: And this is obviously so -- in its infant stage in terms of the research, but it's highly experimental. So what would be the next step here for the technology?</s>LEUTHHARDT: Well, things can -- myself as well as my collaborators, such as Gerwin Schalk, we're working on next stages of vowels and consonants. And I think in the future we're also going to go at what we call</s>KAYE: All right, doctor, I wish you luck. Dr. Leuthardt, we appreciate it. Really cool stuff. Great innovation you're working on. Thank you. And to check out this research on brains and speech, head to our blog, CNN.com/ali. We'll get you hooked up with Dr. Leuthardt's research. A lot of people are questioning President Obama's birth certificate. Well, our Gary Tuchman went to Hawaii to investigate. His verdict is next.
New Brain Implant that Tracks Speech