Scientists Read Images Directly Out of the Brain

By Daniel Miessler on December 12th, 2008: Tagged as Privacy | Science | Security

image_brain
Image from wired.com

Holy shit. I mean, yeah, I knew this would eventually happen–maybe 5 or 10 years from now, but damn.

These scientists in Japan can show people a word and then pull it back out of their brain–without even touching them (fMRI). I add that last part because it’d still be cool if they needed to be jacked into their skull to do it. But no, they don’t.

Wicked brutal stuff. Here’s a funny quote from this article about it:

The researchers suggest a future version of this technology could be applied in the fields of art and design…

Yeah, that’s the first thing I thought of, too. You can read people’s minds from a distance, and now we’ll be able to do better art. Someone needs to get out more.

  • http://brooksgarrett.com Brooks Garrett

    Oddly enough, my first thought was along the art lines too. I often have really creative ideas that I can visualize, but never reproduce in reality. Imagine a system where I can go from mind to screen…

  • Gabriel Doss

    Distraction–The first rule of completely invasive technology that would make the ability to gather massive amounts of personal data from someone. But hey, pretty pictures!

    I too would like a system that could reproduce my mental images on a screen as my ability to reproduce my thoughts is pathetic. I picture Goya or even Berkeley Breathed and get XKCD. Too bad all the other messy details with the technology are still there. I do not believe those in power or who want power will be able to control themselves.

  • http://westwood.fortunecity.com/dolce/636/cooperatistation.html TIMM

    when will this be used for official purposes, like producing testimony in lawsuits and such?

    imagine being compelled to provide mental images of your attackers, your accomplices, your friends and relatives. what would the chinese government do with this?

    i'm very confident that there will be a trial where this will be utilized.

    -=T=-

  • http://dmiessler.com/ Daniel Miessler

    I don't think this is the type of visualization they're talking about. It's going to be difficult to create what you can't visually articulate yourself, since the image is that of your articulation.

  • http://dmiessler.com/ Daniel Miessler

    I don't think this is the type of visualization they're talking about. It's going to be difficult to create what you can't visually articulate yourself, since the image is that of your articulation.

  • http://dmiessler.com/ Daniel Miessler

    I don't think this is the type of visualization they're talking about. It's going to be difficult to create what you can't visually articulate yourself, since the image is that of your articulation.

  • http://www.garyfisk.com/ Gary Fisk

    This is very cool. This was accomplished in cats several years ago, so it is not too surprising that reading visual images straight out of the brain can be done in humans.

    The visual system is the part of the cerebral cortex that is understood the best. This finding is relatively straight forward in some ways because the lower level areas of visual cortex have a direct correspondence to specific sites on the retina (retinotopic organization). In other words, part A in the retina goes to part A of the primary visual cortex, part B goes to part B of the primary visual cortex and so on. So if you knew what areas of primary visual cortex were being activated you could develop a good idea of the image that was being processed by the retina.

    The reason I’m going into this level of detail is to make the point that it is going to be much more difficult to do this kind of thing with thoughts, intentions, decisions and other cognitive phenomena. These are not nearly as well understood as vision. But maybe it will be possible to process cognitive processes like this someday.

  • http://www.garyfisk.com Gary Fisk

    This is very cool. This was accomplished in cats several years ago, so it is not too surprising that reading visual images straight out of the brain can be done in humans.

    The visual system is the part of the cerebral cortex that is understood the best. This finding is relatively straight forward in some ways because the lower level areas of visual cortex have a direct correspondence to specific sites on the retina (retinotopic organization). In other words, part A in the retina goes to part A of the primary visual cortex, part B goes to part B of the primary visual cortex and so on. So if you knew what areas of primary visual cortex were being activated you could develop a good idea of the image that was being processed by the retina.

    The reason I’m going into this level of detail is to make the point that it is going to be much more difficult to do this kind of thing with thoughts, intentions, decisions and other cognitive phenomena. These are not nearly as well understood as vision. But maybe it will be possible to process cognitive processes like this someday.


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