videos reconstructed brain activity

[heliac]

Pretty interesting stuff. We'll be able to record our dreams in video format eventually.


http://gizmodo.com/5843117/scientists-reconstruct-video-clips-from-brain-activity (http://gizmodo.com/5843117/scientists-reconstruct-video-clips-from-brain-activity)

[sono2]

I also came across this - exciting & also scary (in the wrong hands)

[Summerlander]

Splendid!!! I can't wait for this technology to be developed and to become widely available!

[CFTraveler]

Reminds me of one of the episodes in Fringe last year.
Very frightening, could be the beginning of that Brave New World...

[sleeper]

what is exciting about this technology, exactly?

[Beekeeper]

I think it's interesting and, like all technologies, could potentially be used for good or not. If it's ever refined I can imagine possible applications such as re-living a great dream (could put the porn industry out of business) or identifying a suspect in a criminal investigation (stopping short of Minority Report). It could shorten the time creating design plans and patterns, I imagine, presuming you could pull an image out of the mind. If that we're so, everyone who could visualise (would it work in other ways for blind people?) could potentially be an artist, designer or choreographer. I wonder if it could ever be used to recover memories and possibly have application in a therapeutic setting?

[Summerlander]

I'm an artist myself. This tech, for example, would allow me to pause dream-manifested ideas and accurately recreate them in actuality. And I don't know about you but I'd love to have my lucid dreams recorded on film and relieve the experiences by watching them. It would be better than a Hollywood movie for me! :tongue:

[darron]

I wonder if the dream could record multiple dreams happening at the same time.

[Seeuzin]

I also wonder if you could record the hallucinations of those afflicted with schizophrenia or other psychoses - some of those can be very frightening, and it could make people more compassionate for people who are suffering like that. It could make it harder to say "Oh, they're just crazy" because you'd see what they saw, and have a visceral experience of why they live with so much fear.

[mick]

This site has a short description of how it currently works.
http://www.geekosystem.com/video-from-brain-activity/

Uses an MRI system to monitor blood flow variations in the brain while an image is being observed, initially some calibration is conducted and then future cycles seek to match the data gathered with a database of videos from youtube. Cunning.
Presumably the image being viewed is from the same set of youtube videos.

I see the gizmodo site says similar, could not get to it earlier.

[sleeper]

how could watching your life on TV be better than living it?

[heliac]

It isn't

[mick]

Agreed, but a useful development of this will probably be in medical diagnosis. It is a while since I had anything to do with MRI systems but when I moved on the ability to measure blood flow about the brain was a fairly new development and was/is useful for analysing brain function or otherwise. To have a method of mapping the brain under certain conditions, in this case image viewing, will likely lead to new ways to benchmark brain activity and also provide a means to monitor treatment progress (or otherwise :( ).
Could have a powerful role in coma cases also.

If it ever develops to where a recollected thought can be imaged we are in trouble. :)

[heliac]

Hopefully it can tell the difference between recollected thought and recollected memory of an actual event. If it could it could even possibly be used in law.

[mick]

Used in Law, thats a thought. It may be that another option is possible, if not already in the works, in that the mind is said to behave differently when recounting a true account as opposed to a false account... So if having an MRI exam and someone wanders in with a list of questions, probably best to ignore them. :)