Everyone thinks the brain chip race is one billionaire’s company drilling into skulls in America. A Melbourne spinout is going a different way: under the scalp, but outside the skull.
How it works
When you try to speak, the movements of your mouth and jaw fire distinct electrical patterns in the motor cortex. The founders compare them to QR codes. Fluent’s device sits above that area and reads the patterns in sequence, turning them into text or speech, even for someone who has lost their voice. The University of Melbourne’s own newsroom called it a “telepathic device”.
The proof so far
In early testing at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, using scalp electrodes while people spoke, mimed and imagined phrases, a model picked the right phrase out of 128 options with 96% accuracy. The team says it built the largest English dataset of its kind to get there.
Why it’s different
Until now, decoding speech like this was mostly thought to need electrodes implanted inside the skull. CEO Dr Tim Mahoney compares Fluent’s procedure to a routine cochlear implant, which could make it far more accessible. Clinical studies of the insertable electrodes are planned.
The raise
Fluent raised $2M from the University of Melbourne’s Genesis Pre-Seed Fund, Pacific Channel, Galileo Ventures, MS WA, Professor David Graydon, New York’s Jumpspace Ventures and London’s Founders Factory. It’s built for people with conditions like MND and MS who have lost their voice.
My read
The biggest breakthroughs aren’t always the loudest. While the world watches one company drill, a Melbourne lab is betting on the door that doesn’t need a drill. Human trials will tell us how far it can go.