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Re: So our minds CAN be read.....
Magnetic scanner produces these actual images from inside people's brains
[youtube]nsjDnYxJ0bo&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
They then converted this information into visual patterns after feeding it through a computer, in a process which scientists say 'opens a window into the movie of our minds'.
As yet, the technology can only recognise and reconstruct movie clips shown to the test subjects before they braved the scanner.
However, the breakthrough paves the way for reproducing the movies inside our heads that no one else sees, such as dreams and memories, according to researchers.
Professor Jack Gallant, a UC Berkeley neuroscientist, said: 'This is a major leap toward reconstructing internal imagery.'
It is hoped the remarkable process could eventually be used to understand the minds of those who cannot communicate verbally, such as stroke victims and coma patients.
Experts warned though that it is likely to be decades before the technology is advanced enough to read peoples' thoughts and intentions.
Previously, Gallant and fellow researchers recorded brain activity in the visual cortex while a subject viewed black-and-white photographs.
They then built a computational model that enabled them to predict with overwhelming accuracy which picture the subject was looking at.
In their latest experiment, researchers say they have solved a much more difficult problem by actually decoding brain signals generated by moving pictures.
Test subjects watched two separate sets of Hollywood movie trailers, while an MRI scanner was used to measure blood flow through the visual cortex, the part of the brain that processes visual information.
On the computer, the brain was divided into small, three-dimensional cubes - a computer-imaging term known as volumetric pixels, or 'voxels.'
Shinji Nishimoto, one of the scientists involved in the procedure, said: 'We built a model for each voxel that describes how shape and motion information in the movie is mapped into brain activity.'
The brain activity recorded while subjects viewed clips was fed into a computer program that learned, second by second, to associate visual patterns in a particular film with the corresponding brain activity.
The computer was then 'fed' information so that it could construct its own 'versions' of the trailers the subjects were watching - without using the original material. This was done by feeding 18 million seconds of random YouTube videos into the computer program.
The computer then cross-refefenced the two sets of data - and the subjects were shown an entirely new set of film trailers.
The 100 YouTube clips that the computer program decided were most similar to the trailer the subject was watching were merged, creating a blurry, but recognisable image of what was 'happening' inside their minds.
Re: So our minds CAN be read.....
When they perfect this, and get precise images... it'll be interesting to find out what people's brains see when they look into their bathroom mirror.
When it's going to get really interesting is when they actually start recording our memories.
To paraphrase Neil Armstrong:
This was one small step for man, one giant leap for the Singularity.....
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: So our minds CAN be read.....
^ I know.
Imagine...it's a job interview...they're asking me questions while I'm hooked up to the machine...
I'm talking about my comitment to KPIs...but the video screen is showing me eating out the HR woman. Awarkward moment.
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