The things robots can do are pretty amazing, but we've also seen the amazing ability of prosthetic limbs to transform lives. Now, we have computers capable of doing some very low level types of mind-reading. It's not what it seems, they can't pick up on complete sentences or type papers from your thoughts, but just as a prosthetic limb can by manipulated by a person simply thinking about it, which is how our actual limbs are moved anyway, they are now able to identify individual letters from our thoughts and extend the ability of our movements from thought.
To see something truly amazing, watch this segment form 60 minutes. It shows how machines can read and interpret letters and even intent from thought. If you're queasy, be aware there are a couple of very mild scenes where a restrained monkey has electrodes implanted into his brain (you can't see that, though) and a lady who suffered a stroke has been fitted with a coupler attached directly to her skull.
But what it shows is really amazing, and keep in mind this was from 2009! Not only that, a year earlier scientists in Japan were able to determine images someone was seeing based solely on their brain activity. Truly incredible stuff.
This is amazing technology. It is a little scary to think that a computer can read your thoughts. From the video it doesn't seem like they can control the thoughts but to know what someone is thinking is amazing. This could be another form of a lie detector in place of the polygraph. The possibilities are endless.
ReplyDeleteIf a felon was required to wear a sensor where an alert could be sent to the authorities as the criminal is thinking about committing a crime, would it reduce crime in the country?
I was blown away just by watching this. I think it is a wonderful and a new beginning to see how the brain can work. Just when you think life is almost over, the beautifulness of how the brain can work,sending a message connected to a computer. I remembering watching the movie call the diving bell and the butterfly. In this movie he did not have the technology that they are using today. He just used the movement of his eyes to tell his story.
ReplyDeleteWatching Scott and Cathy through this document is an inspiration of hope and what the future has in stored. The Brain operating a wheel chair or the brain operating a hand, as the monkey did.
I can't wait to see what is next!
That really is incredible, and you have to believe that we are in a much better place even in the short years since that 60 Minutes episode aired. The work by Japanese scientists is unbelievable; work like this in the future will have incredible impacts but will also bring up several moral questions. How far do we take this type of technology?
ReplyDeleteWow! I don't know if I would want to be apart of such a project, maybe the brainwave cap,electrodes and conductive gel is okay because it probably isn't painful. But the other lady Kathy Hutchinson may get headaches every now and then. However, it is good that they can keep the brain alive especially the brain of a Neuro Scientist that has useful information. In fact both of these individuals seem to have quite a bit to offer the science community and the world.
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