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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 Bananatree3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    From what I understand Polygraph tests are legally prohibited from most work environments. I hope they extend those laws to brainscans, thought detectors, etc.

  2. ethical issues? c'mon ... by petes_PoV · · Score: 4, Interesting
    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.

    From the article Those technologies remain decades away, but researchers say it's not too soon to think about them, especially if research progresses at the pace set by this study.

    Well, I beg to differ. By the time the "decades" have passed, we'll actually have some information to consider, not just a load of pie-in-the-sky whimsy from people who have no facts to base it on.

    Let's worry about today's ethical issues and leave things like this for when they look like becoming a practical reality.

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
  3. Closer to the Real Thing Than you think by curmudgeon99 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is interesting because it is a form of pattern matching. Anyone who has studied the actual way the brain processes information from the senses knows that the brain receives a pattern--regardless of which sense it comes from--and interprets that pattern in such a way that it can make the interpretation. A great example of this is a device that has been built for the blind. The device consists of a grid of pressure-causing pins that are laid on the tongue of a blind person. If an image of some object is represented in the grid, the wearer's tongue can transmit this image to the brain and, with practice, a blind person's brain can learn to interpret that image and act on the basis of the information. I cannot stress the magnitude of this type of thing: the brain does nothing but pattern interpretation. It matters not where the pattern comes from, only the interpretation that is applied matter.

  4. Am I the only one who is thinking 1984 by RationalRoot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    George Orwell - The Thought Police.

    How far is it from detecting what you are looking at to detecting general ideas like "Violent Thoughts", "Adult thoughts", "Rebelious Thoughts" - if they use different parts of the brain....

    Seriously. If I got a $50 fine every time I thought about killing someone, It'd get damn'd expensive.

    It could get recursive, what if I wanted to kill the guy for fining me $50.....

    Let's not ever consider being fined for "Adult thoughts"

    --
    http://davesboat.blogspot.com/