Slashdot Mirror
Robot Interprets, Plays Back Dreams
foobarx writes "Digital artists have created a humanoid robot which uses brainwave activity recorded during sleep to playback an interpretation of your dreams. The artists, Brendan Burns and Fernando Orellana used machine learning to find patterns in the brainwaves and then matched these patterns to dreams which they remembered having. Others have noted the possible hazards of this new technology."
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll pass on this one...
Her seeing your dreams would be embarrassing, but you'll feel even more embarrassed (and inadequate) when you see her dreams.
I swear to god, I don't think your sister is more beautiful, it was just a dream.
I completely disagree. Dream interpretation has many uses for people other than the one having the dream.
For example, they can be an excellent reason to make fun of your friends.
can the robot do my work for me?
No two-way communication is occurring.
The robot--if such a word is even really appropriate--has only read access. There is no input from the device to the brain--there are only sensors reading the electrical and motor impulses. There's no "determination" of where the impulses are--there are merely changes recorded by sensors which the operator places on the head that passively read the electric fields.
The device does not in any way, shape, or form 'write' to the brain at all.
This is nowhere near a 'mind meld'--if anything, it's like a video camera that records electrical activity rather than visual spectrum activity.
No Matrix bots for you. Sorry. You'll have to wait a while before you can meet Agent Smith.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree
Robot Observes Dreams, Does Interpretive Dance
Except none of that is true. It'd be nice for defendants if it were, but the privilege against self-incrimination does not apply to physical evidence. The Supreme Court has never held there to be a self-incrimination right against giving PHYSICAL evidence -- just to forced TESTIMONY (getting up on the stand and actually describing what happened).
The 5th Amendment does NOT stop the police from forcing you to participate in a lineup.
The 5th Amendment does NOT stop the police from requesting a handwriting sample or a fingerprint.
The 5th Amendment does NOT stop the police from requesting a voice sample.
See, eg here ("It is long settled law that fingerprinting does not violate the Fifth Amendment's guarantee against compelled self-incrimination or the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures. Indeed, much non-testimonial evidence does not fall under those constitutional protections, including the analysis of blood and breath for alcohol. Samples of semen, hair, and other tissues may be taken without a suspect's consent.").
See also Schember v. California, where the Supreme Court reiterated that the 5th Amendment protects against compelled testimony primarily in the spoken word sense. Blood tests weren't compelled "testimony," even if they were "compelled" in the sense that they were forcible, over protests.
We can write laws that prohibit forced fingerprints, or forced handwriting samples -- call your Congressperson and tell them to do so if that's what you believe. But there's no right in the Constitution about that.
Put the batteries in the other way round.. I mean duh, it isn't exactly brain surgery.
which is totally what she said