A team of Japanese scientists at ATR
Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, led by researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani, have successfully processed and displayed reconstructed images directly from the
ever-hackable human brain. In the experiments, the team first showed participants 400 different still images in order to suss out their visual thought patterns. They then showed them the letters that make up the word "neuron," and successfully reconstructed them via brain activity onto a screen. The full results of the tests are going to be published later this month in
Neuron, but Dr. F. Krueger at ATR says that they think the tech could someday be used to hack into people's dreams.
[Via
Register Hardware]Read - Dreams may no longer be secret with Japan computer screen
Read - Your dreams, images can be!
posted Dec 11th 2008 6:29PM
A man, a plan, a canal, Panama.
coming to a theater near you.
I call shenanigans.
I've got their number.
Someone gave it to me in a post from the last couple of days.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/09/scea-confirms-that-playstation-home-launch-coming-this-month-in/
Bottom of the page.
You're welcome.
I call blind people don't exist in 20 years.
http://i38.tinypic.com/9rm4o4.jpg
There are some dreams that just shouldn't be hacked...
Number? Check this number:
U.S. Patent No. 3,951,134
What a title...
Yeah, did Yoda write the second title of the read links?
@mvp: Japanese is Yoda?
...No its the sentence structure they used, backwards and jumbled it is.
When this comes to fruition, I'll make a bundle by providing therapy for these guilt-ridden scientists. They and the guys from the Manhattan Project are going to have a blast!
Why would it come to me? Should I be scared?
HA^^ funnyness
If this is true it's simply amazing, more so not just for reading into dreams but rather to import images directly into the human mind once we know how the images are formed who knows. But something bothers me with the image above, if you look at the two n's they seem to be very very similar to each other more so than I'd imagine our 'analog' minds would produce instead I would have liked to see much more static and variations in the letters above.
Oh good, the ultimate invasion of privacy. No that's just ... just... great, really.
(don't think boobies, don't think boobies, don't think boobies, .... BOOBIES. Drat!)
Test subjects were shown the letters that form the word neuron. This being the case, I doubt there would be a need to show them the letter 'N' twice.
Good catch. Seems fishy. Maybe just a fluke.
they were gathering the data as the letters were being processed, so they would. it wasnt trying to reconstruct your thoughts but rather the image processing in the Visual Cortex of your brain.
A large component of neuronal signaling is digital- neurons either fire (at a single intensity, a '1') or they don't, a '0'. I'd expect more of the noise here to be due to the scanning environment than actual neural activity.
Never really thought about our minds being analog, i guess it makes sense interms of reading signals...
Still, WOOT for dream playback in HD!
where are you getting the N's from??
all i see is adverts for Viagra, im only 17 but you can never get enough viagra
how in the world are you getting a Viagra advert from a fuzzy letter 'n'?
Hey CV...
You'd be suprised to know that our brain's are actually digital.
No joke. Action potentials act in such away that if they do not meet a cetain threshold for membrane potential, they do not fire. There's no graded (analog) response. It's either all go (on/1) or all not at all (off/0).
Now this "digital" concept only holds its own in terms of neuronal machinary. The actual neuronal CIRCUITRY is none like any computer on earth. Think parallel process running in tandem millions of times over. It's quite impressive, actually.
So on one hand, yes our neurons do act in a digital manner, but on the other hand our exhibited behavior due to these digital inputs is quite far from robotic.
Interesting reads if you care to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_potential
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_C._Tolman - This guy has done AMAZING work to revolutionize the way we look at neurons.
@Chuckles, Oligo--
Firing vs. not firing is binary.
Firing *rates* are not binary.
There are surprisingly few circuits in the mammalian CNS or PNS which have been shown to encode meaningful information in single action potentials. In other words, it's all about the firing rate.
I only dream in black and white.
so you're probably over 55.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3353504/Black-and-white-TV-generation-have-monochrome-dreams.html
You're probably too young to have heard much Iron Maiden.
Black and white dreams will be easier to hack, wet dreams on the other hand . . . probably too fast to catch.
Let me know when it's Tony Romo's turn.
WHAT R U IMPLYING!!!!!!! >:(
If this ever comes to pass, then I shall be forced to fall asleep while thinking about doing my enemy's mom. That'll teach em to hack MY dreams.
this looks Like something that was taken from Ghost in The Shell
Thats fantastic tech, amazing, I just hope they push it further, so we can share and watch the best TV shows on the planet, peoples weird wacky dreams!
i have a wet dream
Too bad they hired Mr. Blury Cam to transport the images! God Damnit.
your avatar... scares me.
Fanboys run away in fear of the Saad Rabia! :P
AAAGGHHH!! What is that hideous creature?! Oh, that's right, it's a human.
HOT SHIT!
How do you think the rebels got plans to the death star!?!?
Wow, this will probably be very handy when asking witnesses to a crime what the perpetrator looked like. No more sketches :p
All theyve actually done is been able to read maps related to the visual cortex. Impressive data collection, yes, but not akin to reading thoughts. Researchers have been able to this basic trick for many years with a different method involving surgery and pickups. The advance hear isnt what theyre reading but how they can discern it.
Remember the movie "Brainstorm"?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085271/
What was science fiction in '83 is science fact 25 years later.
Freud just rolled over in his grave.
lol
Oh yea, it's peoples dreams they want to look at. Sure it is. Anyone who thinks this is a good thing needs to wake up. No pun intended.
Good, because if a pun was intended, you failed miserably! :P
That is the stupidest title in the universe
so is your name. ohhhh snap!
sjdurfey completely MAJR PWN'D you and your silly name.
Thank you thank you. I would like to thank all that are involved, D.S. = digital shit, and of course God, because without...*orchestrated music chimes in and drowns out rest of speech*
STOP THE MUSIC
LET THEM FINISH!!!!!
Am I the only one who's first thought was direct into the mind VR video games? Everyone else seems to think 'big brother'...
The quality of network TV programming is so poor, we will end up like that episode of Max Headroom, where the networks would hook up people to the 'dream machine', and air their dreams as original programming. The ratings went through the roof! Beats watching CSI: Miami for sure.
Are you kidding me? If you need an example of the complete drizzle that is network television, use the new Knight Rider. CSI: Miami craps all over most things on television today.
Ugh. I don't like the vision Mr. Krueger has for the future of this technology... Hack into people's dreams? No, Thank you.
Pfff. F. Krueger has been hacking people to death.. i mean hacking people's dreams for years...
Way Cool!!
It looks like the method used to measure brain activity is a function of blood flow in the visual cortex... Which would mean the resolution of the image translation is directly related to the ability to accurately measure blood flow. Therefore, the more accurate the measurement, the sharper the translation can be... So, if you want to do the reverse, manipulate the blood flow in the visual cortex?
Cool! One step closer to the development of those creepy "sex" helmets from Judge Dread...
ARghhh!! Reply meant @ CVMagic
That be amazing. I could record my dreams, all my sex dreams, and reply them over and over again, I knew one day this would becoem a reality and maybe were not to far from it. Were be able to backup our mind. Kinda scary thou, but think of all the possibilities
The matrix is coming. Do not allow it!
I don't want anyone to see my dreams! Especially not my girlfriend!
Gotta love the Japanese...
Even if you don't, they'll mind control you and make you like them.
Most of my sex dreams have Japanese women in them, so not much of a change for me...
Not this time this will not create anything good only bad can come from this.
I have this paper sitting on my to-read pile right now; (full disclosure: I'm a researcher with one of Kamitani's colleagues in the US) - this is an interesting expansion of visual cortex decoding work that's been going on in fMRI for a few years now (see Kamitani and Tong, 2005)... this article merely shows that the method has developed in the last few years.
Cool, but I'm not going to be decoding your dreams anytime soon... ever tried to sleep in a magnet while not moving?
Now where's that ti foil hat...
Now how long until I can watch the pr0n I imagine on my 52"?
Have fun hacking while you can. I bet God is going to update the firmware in a week.
F. Krueger? Is Freddy back? THE NEW NIGHTMARE,... makin dreams a reality!!!!!!!
you dont wanna see what im thinkin ; )
Gives new meaning to the phrase "Mind Game."
Hack my dreams...there goes my impure thoughts.
I'm pretty sure that the scientists would have to wash their eyes out with bleach once they saw my thoughts :)
And the same Japanese researches apparently designed the carpet in the article immediately below this one!
Your thoughts betray you, father. I feel the good in you... ...? ...? ...whats a "neuron"?
f******* crazy japs, what will they think of next?
Subtle ways to insult people who don't realize they are insulting Japanese, most likely.
@ Jon Doe:
I think drewdoog knew exactly what he was doing - insulting a people that he neither knows nor cares to learn about, while belittling their progress.
US companies made the same mistake with China by outsourcing for low wages, and now those US companies are buried in debt to - guess who? China.
http://www.wordreference.com/definition/joke
I don't understand why any of you are welcoming this, for any reason. It's only a matter of time before they make this thing wireless and are able to read your mind from a distance. Pardon me, but this is fucked up.
Yes I could see the amazing advantages.
No I don't want it.
I don't want them knowing anything else about me.
I'm moving to the woods.
Tin foil hats FTW!
It may be good for a while, but it's only a matter of time before we all get scans of our visual cortex; because it's unpatriotic to not let the database know that you may watch porn/do drugs/support terrorists/enjoy strawberry Ice cream.
Doctor F. Kreuger, eh? But it's not April 1st! The last thing I want is Freddy anywhere near my dreams.
"Japanese researchers create images from thoughts using thoughts about images"
Enough with the postmodernism!
Annnnd...this is not really surprising. Of course, the reason the Japanese work on this obsessively is they rather create robots than fix their immigration laws and let the dirty "gaijin" in to supplant their workforce.
We're in the middle of the largest extinction of species in the history of the earth, and the first one caused by a single species. Most biologists and ecologists affirm that our chances of survival beyond this century are slimming by the day. Cancer is epidemic. There are over thirty thousand chemicals polluting the environment, running in the water, getting in our blood. It's remarkable. Caring about something like this has to be placed in relation to our actuality. No?
I nominate you for the most off topic post award for 2008.
PS- Do you know what it would take to actually wipe out the entire human race? As in all of us? Not even global warming, global cooling, or an asteroid could do that. Do a bit of research on why diversity in a species is a good thing.
These guys hacked my ghost last night. I woke up thinking I was Tom Cruise and just about wanted to take my life....then I realized I'm not him and was fine. Damn hackers.
The singularity just got a little bit closer... Amazing stuff.
As a concept artist for video games, I also wonder if this technology will eventually allow us to manipulate and generate imagery by combining both our "mind's-eye" images with motor neuron or even simple pen-tablet hand-drawn images.
Draw a little, imagine changes, draw a little.. Stretch, warp flip darken.. Sounds like a lot of fun and a lot simpler than hunting through photoshop keyboard shortcuts.
I think we'll see fantastic hybrid tech before we'll get the full-on Ghost in the Shell /Ray kurzweil-ian brain download.
I saw this on digg and noticed at least one other person who realized that this doesn't actually show what your brain is thinking about at all. It's just interpreting the signals coming back from the retina and going to the visual cortex. The reason why it works mostly on black and white-very high contrast-images composed mostly of lines is because we have different nerve receptors in the eye that'll respond to lines at different angles, and high contrasts.
So basically, they can see what you're looking at but not really what you're thinking of!
maybe this will improve that lie detector kit police are using
I would love to see that I can record my dream as in Final Fantasy the first movie.
Its only a matter of time for this to find its way into porn.
this is great I love my 'flying' dreams....~....
This project should be terminated since there are some things society just is not ready for.
Better yet make the head researcher disappear from the universe.
True they tend to spin this stuff to make it as creepy as possible but I still do not like Dr. F. Krueger's view he wishes to abuse this technology if it ever could be used in such a manner.