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Japanese Scientists Claim To Reconstruct Images From Brain Data

Posted by timothy on from the shutter-to-think dept.

In a world first, a research group in Kyoto Japan has succeeded in processing and displaying optically received images directly from the human brain. Here's the Japanese press release for good measure. One step closer to broadcasting your dreams? The research is due to be published today in the US scientific journal Neuron

14 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. Dreaming Is A Private Thing by mcgrew · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The group of researchers at Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, including Yukiyasu Kamitani and Yoichi Miyawaki, from its NeuroInformatics Department, said about 100 million images can be read, adding that dreams as well as mental images are likely to be visualized in the future in the same manner.

    And once again Isaac Asimov predicted this.

    --
    Free Martian Whores!
  2. No more lack of artistic skills for me by Ifandbut · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have lots of cool images in my head for comics and wallpaper, however I lack the artistic talent to bring those images from my mind to paper/photoshop. Maybe soon I will be able to compensate for my lack of artistic ability.

    1. Re:No more lack of artistic skills for me by fastest+fascist · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Maybe, although I personally find, as someone who has spent a considerable amount of time developing technical skill at drawing and painting, that the process of learning to draw has also considerably altered my aesthetic sensibilities. Drawing is ultimately not that much about knowing how to move your hand just right. In fact, it seems to me it is largely about forgetting about the hand, and concentrating on the form of what you are drawing instead... In any case, I doubt a direct mind-to-picture system would in itself be enough to make anyone an artist. Maybe to reproduce what a person sees in front of them, but to be able to make a picture without exact reference, you're still going to need to know very precisely what you want each detail to look like. I think even with this kind of tech there'd still be a pretty intense learning process involved.

    2. Re:No more lack of artistic skills for me by Yvanhoe · · Score: 2, Interesting
      From the first line of TFA :

      a research group in Kyoto Prefecture has succeeded in processing and displaying optically received images directly from the human brain.

      Images you acquire optically follow a very different path from dreams or "mind pictures". The former aren't really detailled pictures, they are visual concepts that cannot be cast into a bitmap without interpretation. If we were to talk about the last dream you have made of a human, I could convince you that their hairs were of one or either color using suggestion techniques.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    3. Re:No more lack of artistic skills for me by lahvak · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I have a memory from my childhood that I can almost recall at will, at almost any time. When I was 6, my father took me on a week long canoeing trip. I remember standing on a road, looking through some trees down to the river onto some cool rapids which we were about to go down. I can see in my mind what seems to be a perfect picture: the side of the road, the wooded slope covered with dry leaves, trees, and the river. It seems that I could just sit down a draw the scene from my memory. The funny thing is, every time I try to focus on some detail, for example when try to identify the trees, or look at a number on a mile-post next to the road, or something like that, the whole picture completely disappears, and I have hard time recalling it again. The details are simply not there at all.

      Now if I were to draw the scene, I would undoubtedly substitute some sort of simplified shapes, or maybe just a pattern of shades of green, for the leaves. But you could look at the details of the drawing and see how it was done. You probably would be unable to identify the trees by their leaves, the drawing would not contain that much details, but you would be able to see the way the image is rendered on paper. I cannot do that with the mental image. I believe that in my mind I am able to render the overall image without actually rendering the details at all, not even as some sort of impressionist jumble of colors and shades. If that's the case, transferring this image onto paper would require filling in all the details in some way, which, IMHO, is exactly the hard part of drawing or painting.

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      AccountKiller
  3. Kinda neat, not that exciting though by Improv · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The visual cortex is one of the more understood areas of the brain, and decoding V1/V2 is low-hanging fruit. To the extent that memory and dreams back-project to these areas, perhaps recording parts of these experiences would be possible.

    Making this practical and inexpensive would be quite a practical breakthrough though - imagine being able to imagine something and import it into GIMP from a headband. Doing this through MRI would be impractical unless someone would be able to keep the image stable in their head for long enough for a high resolution scan of the area (and bear the ~$700/hour cost of MRI).

    --
    For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
    1. Re:Kinda neat, not that exciting though by fastest+fascist · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'd mod you up if I could. It doesn't seem to me that when I imagine something in my head, there is actually a picture being made somewhere in my brain. It's an impression, a sense of shapes, something very fluid and ephemeral. I can, in a way, turn around three-dimensional objects "in my head", but the experience is far from looking at a video of an object turning. A simple dumb read of that kind of thing would probably be very difficult, although a person could perhaps train themselves to solidify their ideas into image form via a neural interface, much as they can ordinarily do with pen and paper, for example.

  4. This is so cool! by CreatorOfSmallTruths · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This , if true , will have HUGE implications - we'll be able to see what people THINK. I don't know if you actually grasp the monument dimensions of this. Checking for terrorism, knowing if you are really loved, truth telling machines, like the internet, something like this can level the plain field for a long long time...

    1. Re:This is so cool! by T+Murphy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Seeing people's thoughts would be amazing when it comes to Savants and other people who think in ways we cannot otherwise understand- such people have often reported numbers having unique sensory perceptions attached to them. This technology would be able to teach us a lot about the potential of the human mind.

      --
      My webcomic
  5. I still wonder by bigattichouse · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Years ago I was a sign language interpreter (ASL), and after a few years realized that I was thinking in ASL and "visually" instead of the usual auditory monologue... I always wondered if you use a completely different part of the brain to process the language - or if it just gets translated into language concepts before processing... I wonder how long before "telepathic" audio is available.

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    meh
  6. Feedback Loop? by drpentode · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Would looking at the image your brain is generating at the same time you are generating it create a feedback loop much like holding a microphone too close to a speaker?

  7. The Opposite by Clandestine_Blaze · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder if the process can be reversed, and images can be fed into the brain to create a dream sequence? Will people who really hate their reality use this as an escape and never try to wake up again?

    Cool story!

    --
    Best "String" Ever!
  8. Nightmare recursion by pRtkL+xLr8r · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have a feeling that if someone were record one of their nightmares and then watch it when awake, the conscious brain wouldn't be able to cope with what the subconscious brain can. Watching it would give you nightmares. And the cycle begins...

  9. I remember seeing this kind of thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    .. a long time ago.

    And here it is:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-computer_interface

    "In 1999, researchers led by Yang Dan at University of California, Berkeley decoded neuronal firings to reproduce images seen by cats."