UC Berekely has a very rudimentary version of “mind reading” now.
Look at the second video clip in the article to see how far they have come – and how much work remains.
“Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and computational models, UC Berkeley researchers have succeeded in decoding and reconstructing people’s dynamic visual experiences – in this case, watching Hollywood movie trailers.
As yet, the technology can only reconstruct movie clips people have already viewed. However, the breakthrough paves the way for reproducing the movies inside our heads that no one else sees, such as dreams and memories, according to researchers.
The approximate reconstruction (right) of a movie clip (left) is achieved through brain imaging and computer simulation
“This is a major leap toward reconstructing internal imagery,” said Professor Jack Gallant, a UC Berkeley neuroscientist and coauthor of the study published online today (Sept. 22 2011) in the journal Current Biology. “We are opening a window into the movies in our minds.”
Thirty years from now we will look back and marvel how crude it was back then.