Researchers at the University of California Berkeley have figured out a way to translate brain activity into visuals. I'll try to sum it up the best I can. With the aid of a functional magentic resonance imaging machine (fMRI) and what sounds like a very complicated algorithm, a computer is able to create what it believes to be images that the mind "sees." The computer is programmed to recognize visual patterns in videos and to associate those patterns with brain activity from the subjects. Then, when only given brain activity information, the computer pieces together what it believes the viewer is seeing in the form of a mishmash of various combinations of 18 million seconds of YouTube clips. Got it?
Are we living in the future? Because, its discoveries and crazy innovations like these that make me think we're living in the future. After this kind of technology is developed, no more trying desperately to remember that dream you had last night. Just a click of the rewind button and there it is, clear as can be, on your TV screen.
On a more bettering-of-society kind of level, this technology could do a lot of good for people with severe speech issues. Sufferers of strokes, neurological disease, and maybe even comas could have a new way of communicating. Of course, there's still a lot of development, research, and many many years before any mind-reading tech will be readily available. This does seem to be an impressive first step, though.
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