Speech interaction with a rat

This paper presents the first report of a system of human’s speech interaction with rats via integration of brain–machine interfaces and automatic speech recognition technologies. We propose a novel human–rat speech interaction paradigm by incorporating speech translator module, which translates human’s speech commands into suitable electrical brain stimulation to steer the rat to induce expected locomotor behaviors. The preliminary results show that we can guide a rat’s movement by speech commands. We further look into the future application scenarios together with forthcoming challenges facing this newly evolved cyborg intelligent system. This work will pave the way for natural interaction with animal robots.