This is the stuff straight out of a sci-fi movie that gets me excited and scared at the same time… definitely more excited, though!  Researchers at The Gallant Lab at UC Berkeley have developed a method using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to read your mind and then recreate the images your brain is “thinking of” using YouTube clips.  The video above shows the clip that the subject was watching, and then the visual picture that the researchers recreated from the brain activity.  They can certainly explain the science behind this better than I will ever be able to, but the possibilities for this type of technology are really awesome.  Dream recording anyone!? The researchers have more medical applications in mind though:
Eventually, practical applications of the technology could include a better understanding of what goes on in the minds of people who cannot communicate verbally, such as stroke victims, coma patients and people with neurodegenerative diseases.
It may also lay the groundwork for brain-machine interface so that people with cerebral palsy or paralysis, for example, can guide computers with their minds.
Between this new tech and the Back to the Future MAG sneakers released by Nike we are living in the future. Â Now, where’s my hoverboard?
via [io9]
I would love to hear commentary from the person being subjected to the test because it seems as if it isn’t a direct correspondance to the images of on the video screen but rather a mix of images cognated from the video and possible memories or thoughts as a result of the stimulus from the video. Baically, the images might show the images created by thoughts and or memories in the mind of the person because of the video, but not images of the video they where watching.
The most interesting thing is that people show up more defined than objects.
whoaaaa……