The Dream Machine/Scientists can now read your mind

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Math Is Hard
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081211/sc_afp/sciencejapanbrainoffbeat_081211052641

TOKYO (AFP) – A Japanese research team has revealed it had created a technology that could eventually display on a computer screen what people have on their minds, such as dreams.

Researchers at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories succeeded in processing and displaying images directly from the human brain, they said in a study unveiled ahead of publication in the US magazine Neuron.

While the team for now has managed to reproduce only simple images from the brain, they said the technology could eventually be used to figure out dreams and other secrets inside people's minds.

"It was the first time in the world that it was possible to visualise what people see directly from the brain activity," the private institute said in a statement.

"By applying this technology, it may become possible to record and replay subjective images that people perceive like dreams."
 
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Imagine this: police show a suspect a portion of a picture of a crime scene. If the suspect's brain "fills in" the rest of the picture correctly...bingo! They've got their guy!

Cool...but a bit scary too :eek: .
 


I've always wanted to be able to record and re-watch my dreams...
 


Math Is Hard said:
I'm just amazed that they can reconstruct simple letters from visual cortex activity. It is hard to imagine it working with more sophisticated visual imagery.

So, as long as the crime involves simple letters, my interrogation scenario will work.
 


lisab said:
So, as long as the crime involves simple letters, my interrogation scenario will work.

:smile::smile::smile:

Makes me think of a Sesame Street episode.
"Oh, no! Someone has stolen the letter F! Who has stolen the letter F?"
 


I would go straight to a psychiatric hospital if they took a look at my mind. =/
 


just a warning, anybody that tries to read my thoughts is going to get goatse'd.
 


Trust me, you DON'T want to see my dreams. Even I don't.
 


Math Is Hard said:
:smile::smile::smile:

Makes me think of a Sesame Street episode.
"Oh, no! Someone has stolen the letter F! Who has stolen the letter F?"

ahahha, yet still the whole thing is eerily fascinating.
 
Scientists can now read your mind

Not sure if anyone has posted this yet...


neuron.jpg


Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.

The scientists were able to reconstruct various images viewed by a person by analyzing changes in their cerebral blood flow. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the researchers first mapped the blood flow changes that occurred in the cerebral visual cortex as subjects viewed various images held in front of their eyes. Subjects were shown 400 random 10 x 10 pixel black-and-white images for a period of 12 seconds each. While the fMRI machine monitored the changes in brain activity, a computer crunched the data and learned to associate the various changes in brain activity with the different image designs.

Then, when the test subjects were shown a completely new set of images, such as the letters N-E-U-R-O-N, the system was able to reconstruct and display what the test subjects were viewing based solely on their brain activity.

For now, the system is only able to reproduce simple black-and-white images. But Dr. Kang Cheng, a researcher from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, suggests that improving the measurement accuracy will make it possible to reproduce images in color.

“These results are a breakthrough in terms of understanding brain activity,” says Dr. Cheng. “In as little as 10 years, advances in this field of research may make it possible to read a person’s thoughts with some degree of accuracy.”

The researchers suggest a future version of this technology could be applied in the fields of art and design — particularly if it becomes possible to quickly and accurately access images existing inside an artist’s head. The technology might also lead to new treatments for conditions such as psychiatric disorders involving hallucinations, by providing doctors a direct window into the mind of the patient.

ATR chief researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani says, “This technology can also be applied to senses other than vision. In the future, it may also become possible to read feelings and complicated emotional states.”

The research results appear in the December 11 issue of US science journal Neuron.





Looks like this is the real article--http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WSS-4V4113M-P&_user=10&_coverDate=12%2F10%2F2008&_rdoc=20&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%237054%232008%23999399994%23757128%23FLA%23display%23Volume)&_cdi=7054&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=21&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=c3fa3d5d679adb37b5983dd51af3aafb
 


This will surely only lead to Faraday cage headwear accessories and lapel clip-on thought detection scramblers.

It will give new meaning to putting your thinking cap on.
 


Hah! Suddenly tin-foil hats aren't such a bad idea, are they, HMM?
 


WarPhalange said:
Hah! Suddenly tin-foil hats aren't such a bad idea, are they, HMM?

LMAO. are you wearing one?
 


the usefulness of aluminum foil deflector beanies is frequency-dependent

http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/
 
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lisab said:
Imagine this: police show a suspect a portion of a picture of a crime scene. If the suspect's brain "fills in" the rest of the picture correctly...bingo! They've got their guy!

Cool...but a bit scary too :eek: .

Sounds like a Tom Cruise movie...
 


Math Is Hard said:
Who has stolen the letter F?"

Who the uck has stolen the letter ? (version or grown up)
 
Math Is Hard said:
A Japanese research team has revealed it had created a technology that could eventually display on a computer screen what people have on their minds, such as dreams.

Interestingly not long ago there was an article in SciAm where they stated it is unlikely to do such things anytime soon.
 
Wow this sounds very interesting. I just heard about it the other day. Unfortunately the ScienceDirect link doesn't work. Can anyone provide a reference to the article (journal ref / ArXiV / link)?
 
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/08966273


Number 20
 


WarPhalange said:
I would go straight to a psychiatric hospital if they took a look at my mind. =/

Im going to be right behind you.
 


WarPhalange said:
I would go straight to a psychiatric hospital if they took a look at my mind. =/

might as well say we're all insane ;) Don't think of an elephant, don't think of an elephant...
 
:smile: I just finished watching a film an i can not remember the title, it was about some guy that could change the future by thought, and he thought i would not remember much i guess,
couple a machine to my brain and it will show the (only) thing i think i remember clearly.
 


Raizy said:
might as well say we're all insane ;) Don't think of an elephant, don't think of an elephant...

 
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This is what the subject is viewing at a present time. So, does that mean it can't necessarily show a memory? If so, I don't see much use of this for interrogation or crime solving.

On the other hand, it might solve language barriers by expressing visually what a person is trying to say. I would love to see this applied to animals!
 
OAQfirst said:
This is what the subject is viewing at a present time. So, does that mean it can't necessarily show a memory? If so, I don't see much use of this for interrogation or crime solving.

On the other hand, it might solve language barriers by expressing visually what a person is trying to say. I would love to see this applied to animals!

the thing is, you've got to train your computer (probably running an artificial neural net) to correctly interpret what the person sees.

The team said that it first figured out people's individual brain patterns by showing them some 400 different still images.

if you've got to train the system for each individual, then that implies you need their cooperation. how well can you daydream, imagining a scene different than the one presented to you? hopefully well enough to confuse the algorithms of this machine. or if not, simply focus not on the whole scene, but a small portion of it.

whether it can show a memory though would depend on if the same circuitry used for visual processing is used in recollection.

if it weren't so fuzzy, it could make for some interesting military hardware. commanders and leaders could get a first hand view of what's happening on the ground during a critical situation. this'll probably show up in some sci-fi program within the next year, if it hasn't already been done.
 

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