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Brain Scanner Can Tell What You're Looking At

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-does-a-scanner-see dept.

palegray.net writes "Wired News brings us an article about brain scanning systems that can accurately tell what you're looking at by analyzing your brain's electrical activity. Using a database constructed of readings taken on test subjects who were shown thousands of photographs, the system works in real time to decipher what you're seeing. Naturally, there are some ethical concerns over some potential applications for this technology. Definitely a new twist on "input devices.""

4 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Re:more than ever - Thought Privacy laws by FST777 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    what's to stop some nefarious employer requiring mandatory scans for every employee?
    Legislation, I hope.
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    Free beer is never free as in speech. Free speech is always free as in beer.
  2. Re:ethical issues? c'mon ... by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 4, Insightful

    you're strapped into a machine the size of a room - we're not talking about someone suppreptitiously pointing a camera-sized device at you and reading your thoughts. Yes. that'll be an interesting idea, if and when it becomes a practical proposition. It's all just a matter of time. Your mobile phone is more powerful than computers which filled several rooms a few decades ago. If we've learned anyhthing about new tech, it's that big bulky impractical stuff will be mobile and practical before we know it, so now we have precious time to consider the fact of such a device's existence and applications before we're presented with it as part of everyday life.
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  3. Re:more than ever - Thought Privacy laws by pnewhook · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Actually I'm hoping that this technology gets developped even more and is proven to be infallible.

    Can you imagine the stinkin' lawyers we'd get rid of? Stick the guy in the brain scanner and ask 'did you rob the store and murder the clerk - yes or no?'. Done. No more blowing a quarter million dollars of my tax money on some trial for a lowlife criminal (or wrongly convicting the innocent).

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  4. Re:And yet.... by Akardam · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And yet they invented it anyway. I guess you could use it to study how the brain processes images, but for the life of me I can't think of a truly beneficial, non-evil application.

    Uh, how about research into artificial sight for the blind, or restoring visual comprehension to persons with brain damage? A tool is a tool, an object that is neither good or evil. It's how people use it that's the problem.