How many times, before to significant tests, have we desired to have a photographic memory powerful enough to memorise the entire course syllabus in one night? What if we told you that even while this might not be possible just yet, the reverse might be about to change?
Radboud University researchers have disclosed that they are working on “mind reading” equipment that can depict a person’s brainwaves in pictures.
Researchers working to develop this mind-reading technology have disclosed that two volunteers’ participation in an experiment yielded some promising findings. The volunteers were made to sit in a powerful functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner while each was shown a different image.
The fMRI scanner detects brain activity based on blood flow. Hence, when the volunteers were focusing on the image given, the fMRI started observing the changing frequencies of the brainwave within the part of the brain responsible for vision.
The information gained by the scanner was then transferred to the computer’s algorithm system which managed to depict an accurate visualization of the same image that was shown.
The best part about the entire research was that the images shown to the volunteers were formulated by a computer using the “paint-by-numbers” technique where each tiny dot whether light or dark was given a unique computer program code.
The pictures that were formed were new and were never seen either by the volunteers or fed into the fMRI scanner before. So, the accuracy it displayed in reading the brain signals and curating those signals in pictorial representation on the computer was a massive step.
This advancement in technology is massive and scientists are hopeful for even greater outcomes for this. Cognitive neuroscientist, Thirza Dado, believes that while the tests were solely focused on the image that was shown in the exact moment, the future with this technology can curate the image of what one person was thinking too. Hence, could be a massive blowing step into the world of mind reading and even clinical settings.
