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Computer Program Reconstructs Heard Words From Brain Scans
sciencehabit writes "In a new study, neuroscientists connected a network of electrodes to the hearing centers of 15 patients' brains and recorded the brain activity while they listened to words like 'jazz' or 'Waldo.' They saw that each word generated its own unique pattern in the brain. So they developed two different computer programs that could reconstruct the words a patient heard just by analyzing his or her brain activity. Reconstructions from the better of the two programs were good enough that the researchers could accurately decipher the mystery word 80% to 90% percent of the time. Because there's evidence that the words we hear and the words we recall or imagine trigger similar brain processes, the study suggests scientists may one day be able to tune in to the words you're thinking."
I'm pretty sure those tin foil hats don't actually work.
No?
Hopefully one can apply such technology to the politics soon. The program may be disoriented though, as when a word comes out from a politician mouth, the computer using the real true paths of the brain will understand the exact opposite of such word.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
At least we'd know that their brains heard and recognized the words.... whether or not they actually understood them is left for another system to determine.
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
Man... the 21st century is gonna be so cool!
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Based on the articles (and other articles using "mind reading" for lie detection) the apparatus would have to be calibrated to each person.
So in 20 years, when the Department of Homeland Security conducts an involuntary "health and wellness" check for your residence, it would be in your best interests to think of something "out there," such as a transexual Asian prostitute shooting ping-pong balls out of her ass.
Then you could behave like Multiple Migs and toss one off in their face.
69 dude!
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
We are f*cked, seriously. If this kind of thing gets out and is exploited for commercial or polical purposes there will not be enough room in the "hills" for everyone. I think my next career will be in techological responsibility and law. I don't need to remind anyone here that the "man" has finally taken ownership of policing technology. The day I have feared for most of my career is finally here.
[ For you youngsters, see Firefox. ]
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
For this experiment, electrodes had to be *surgically implanted* into the test persons' skull. It's not like they remotely measured their electrical brain activity. So for now you can relax ...
Du kan glomma dina ensama stunder, du kan lita paa teknikens under - Wilmer X
Or we could demand brain scans of politicians to see what they really intend to do if elected. But I guess defeatism works too.
Did anybody else think that this sort of technology could really help with detecting lies?
No. I thought it would be misused {and/or fake), produce the wrong results and innocent people would pay for the crimes of others.
I also thought that it would become another tool of the burgeoning american police state and good for the Jail Industrial complex.
If you can visualize that, then you have other problems.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I remember, back during the tv series (non-animated), Robocop couldn't tell if a politician was lying because he was so used to never really telling the truth with the words he uses everyday. Hilarious excuse for why Murphy couldn't figure out what was going on.
"Yeah...it was the numbers that were irrational, not the murderous cult of vegetarians...." -- Hippasus of Metapontum
3 ways it could go:
So fast, it's like listening to a dolphin
Same speed, but only really big words he's been dying to use for decades but didn't have time to spell out.
Math. All math all the time. i.e equations to describe what he wants for breakfast.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
This technology can be used to inhibit stuttering for persons with this disorder. You see, there's this phenomenon where stuttering can be inhibited if a stutterer speaks in approximate unison with other speakers (choral speech). A device was thus developed that attempts to mimic choral speech by echoing a stutterer's speech with a few milliseconds delay (delayed auditory feedback). It's effective, but not 100% effective since a stutter needs to overcome the initial stuttering block (i.e., he needs to speak so that it can be echoed later). With this technology, a device can simply read your mind so that you can speak in unison with the "mind reading device". I hope there would be a portable version of this soon.
I think this'll be pretty cool in practice.
Imagine that; once this kind of system is in place, all I'd have to do to shut down my computer, for example, is to simply think of the word 'shutdo
"A government is a body of people usually -- notably -- ungoverned." -Shepherd Book
Brains aren't the best place to seek truth
"The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -
This is just another FMRI trick.
But only because they didn't read TFA:
Electrocorticographic (ECoG) recordings were obtained using subdural electrode arrays implanted in 15 patients undergoing neurosurgical procedures for epilepsy or brain tumor.
They used a much more invasive method for this one.
My concern, long-term, is quite the contrary.
If this kind of interface works, we'll rapidly be obliged to think *everything* in words, painfully.
The situation will be back to the medieval times where reading meant reading aloud -indeed the writing was intended to be read aloud. There is a very interesting moment around that time when very scarce educated people start considering reading without talking, for instance, and this is documented (in writing! ;-) by witnesses from the time, who are baffled.
Liberating our reading from the necessity of reading aloud has been something extremely important for our thinking, an importance now almost forgotten.
if we switch to a world where every thought has to be almost vocalized to be interpreted by surrounding machinery, we'll lose our "fast reading" capacity, and I fear we may lose too the capacity to think fast. Really, back to early Middle Ages...
Herve S.
Apparently that was supposed to be released onto the market in 2008, but there's no news of it since then. Looks like it's vaporware :-(
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel