Scientists extract images directly from brain

This is freakin' UNBELIEVABLE...I saw this on digg today. Apparently some scientists think it's possible that we can develop technology to tap into images our brain constructs.

I've fantasized about this ever since seeing Final Fantasy: The Spirits within (check out this clip...skip to 5:15) Just imagine the possibilities this holds for dream recording if actualized!! I never thought this would even be possible...I'm still not sure if it is, all I saw so far is the one article. If someone could find the scientific article from the journal Neuron I'd love to read it.

Wow, just wow...

http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=69867

and

http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=69899

and

another one that I can't find now..maybe because its been locked or deleted or something

Interesting story though.

Ahh sorry, was so excited about that story I forgot to check for others...My bad :(

Its chill, just wanted to give you a couple places to talk about it..if we all chat it up in those, then we can have a better discussion in my mind, since everyone will see what everyone has to say...not blaming you for your excitement at all..I think this is really awesome stuff.

I posted something in one of the other threads. Essentially, I'm convinced this is hype or wishful thinking, and not generally possible unless you lived in a lab all your life and every bit of information you ever experienced was catalogued while hooked into a a system of computers to map your neural activity. Although there is a genuinely interesting and valid breakthrough regarding understanding how we formulate memories that is being piggybacked here. And it's a sublime, wonderful scientific discovery, which was I believe originally uncovered this summer by a team of Israeli scientists. They simply came up with a way of mapping where short term memories were stored and then later accessed by using short video clips and asking people to describe them later, which is quite a long way removed from decoding anything so complex as a dream or even a simple image not presented in a controlled setting, given the fact that every individual's neural map of experiences is bound to differ greatly. The razzle dazzle sell is the one that gains steam though. If we were to all be raised with a controlled set of experiences and a team of researchers to map where the neurons were firing, then yes, this could be possible. But then, who would care? Without our individual set of experiences, we're hardly interesting.

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Originally Posted by picnic vs tornado

I posted something in one of the other threads. Essentially, I'm convinced this is hype or wishful thinking, and not generally possible unless you lived in a lab all your life and every bit of information you ever experienced was catalogued while hooked into a a system of computers to map your neural activity. Although there is a genuinely interesting and valid breakthrough regarding understanding how we formulate memories that is being piggybacked here. And it's a sublime, wonderful scientific discovery, which was I believe originally uncovered this summer by a team of Israeli scientists. They simply came up with a way of mapping where short term memories were stored and then later accessed by using short video clips and asking people to describe them later, which is quite a long way removed from decoding anything so complex as a dream or even a simple image not presented in a controlled setting, given the fact that every individual's neural map of experiences is bound to differ greatly. The razzle dazzle sell is the one that gains steam though. If we were to all be raised with a controlled set of experiences and a team of researchers to map where the neurons were firing, then yes, this could be possible. But then, who would care? Without our individual set of experiences, we're hardly interesting.

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Exactly.

It will take a long time before this technique gets good enough to record your dream visuals. This technique works using fMRI and a computer trying to make sense of the scan. fMRI is noisy, so harder for a computer to make sense of.

By the time fMRI is accurate enough or computers are strong enough to process this data quickly and accurately we'll probably have found other ways to record dream visuals.

so this may take a loooong time to get done eh? long time like from the beginning of modern computers to now, say 40 or 50 years? or are we talking 'long time' like from before there were cars to now? and you know we'd have to adjust that, because the more we advance, the faster we advance. i'd say that an already proven possibility like this one, which is in working stages right now, can be expected to be very advanced in 20 years time.

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Originally Posted by sleepingdog

so this may take a loooong time to get done eh? long time like from the beginning of modern computers to now, say 40 or 50 years? or are we talking 'long time' like from before there were cars to now? and you know we'd have to adjust that, because the more we advance, the faster we advance. i'd say that an already proven possibility like this one, which is in working stages right now, can be expected to be very advanced in 20 years time.

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Look at the date.

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Originally Posted by sleepingdog

so this may take a loooong time to get done eh? long time like from the beginning of modern computers to now, say 40 or 50 years? or are we talking 'long time' like from before there were cars to now? and you know we'd have to adjust that, because the more we advance, the faster we advance. i'd say that an already proven possibility like this one, which is in working stages right now, can be expected to be very advanced in 20 years time.

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I agree with this. If someone from 2030 showed you something like that, you'd call it impossible, but if you showed something like an iPhone or one of those tiny laptops or something to someone from 1990, you'd get a similar result.

It's kinda creepy how close they are to reading minds

The Orwellian thought police are coming! Grab your tinfoil hats folks!

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Originally Posted by grasshoppa

The Orwellian thought police are coming! Grab your tinfoil hats folks!

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:)

I can understand the idea behind it but at the moment, the computer would have to "learn" teh person it is reading, ie you would have to look at the letter a, think a and see a in your mind the way the a is formed on the picture you are looking at. The computer would read this, learn this as your a and then every time you thought about this a it would understand it.

All of this is explained, but what if you thought of the letter a in running writing, or a lot of a all at once, capital or not, tall small background images or not.

The point is, although this is a wonderful wonderful peice of technology and the advancements will be fast indeed, it will be a long way off to recording dreams or reading minds of each individual person.
You will have to teach the machine, as I beleive that the neurochemistry of each individual is different enoguh to cause problems.,

But im all for it

R

well...This will end up costing a lot of money. Another thing, This will probably be used by the government in a bad sort of way. I agree with picnic vs tornado.

Yes the goverment would use it to read criminals minds and shit.

I think it's very possible why don't they invent a piece of machinary that can capture images sounds and moving clips which will send the data back to a computer