Scientists Extract Images Directly From Brain.

Discussion in 'Science and Nature' started by MelT, Feb 12, 2009.

  1. Scientists Extract Images Directly From Brain.

    12 Dec 2008
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    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.
    [Source: Chunichi]
     
  2. wow.

    i'm not sure if i'd want ppl to be able to see my dreams
     
  3. Good Lord. I don't want this technology ever falling into the wrong hands...like my wife's!
     
  4. or the government!!!
     
  5. ive heard of something like this before, i hope goverenment agencies dont use technologies like this to interrogate innocents like us.

    in their eyes we are scum tho so fuck em all ill make that machine FAIL somehow...
     
  6. S C A R Y


    these are some unprecedented ethically and morally technilogical times we live in.

    im fucking psyched.
     
  7. two words: minority report
     
  8. only option...create a genitically modified cross between the common cold and HIV... spreads through air and cold methods... kills like HIV...

    take out the world
     
  9. Sounds like Final Fantasy: the spirit within is coming true!
    Remember the beginning at the movie where the machine is recording the lady's dream.
    Pretty sick!
     
  10. why worry? you have to be in an MRI for it to work...no one will be reading your thoughts from space
     
  11. Wow, that's some awesome techonology. It'd be cool to watch your dreams like a movie.
     
  12. Fuck, now how will we get away with shit...they can just read our minds n be like thats the guy who was stalking me!
     
  13. I don't think 1 layer of foil around our heads is going to protect us anymore, time to start double wrapping to ensure they don't read our minds.
     
  14. Tripple layering....its our only hope :confused:
     
  15. #16 Deleted member 102856, Feb 17, 2009
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2009


    This first part is just blowing my mind ...
    and then the rest
    This is amazing.


    I'm surprised at how many people aren't seeing the benefits that can arrive from this. Treating mental disorders, knowing if our dreams mean anything, and just being awesome.
     
  16. Dude that's fucking awesome.

    Could build a DVD collection of dreams :p
     
  17. There was a movie on something like this. They put this on your head and you push record and it records everything you see. Forget what the movie is called.
     

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