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 December 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