Posted on 07/08/2009 6:37:05 PM PDT by FromLori
It sounds like something from a science fiction movie: Sensors are surgically inserted in the brain to understand what you're thinking. Machines that can speak, move or process information based on the fleeting thoughts in a person's imagination.
But it's not completely fictional. The technology is out there. A researcher in Wisconsin recently announced the ability to "think" updates onto the Twitter website. Locally, researchers at Washington University have developed even deeper ways of tying humans and computers together.
For Eric Leuthardt, 36, a neurologist at Washington University Medical School, it's about taking our relationship with computers to the next level.
"The idea is to basically connect people with devices and machines through their thoughts directly," he said.
Leuthardt's latest research involves giving computers the ability to understand speech imagined in the mind.
The research is a component of "Brain-Computer Interface Technology," which decodes brainwaves in a certain part of the brain. Computers are then programmed to understand those signals and perform an action accordingly.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
The future is here yikes!
See also
They won’t need telescreens.
“Open the door, Hal”.
The computer guessed “sex” 100% of the time and was right 70% of the time.
My meager understand has it that our “thoughts” are simply unamplified audibles. That “mental telepathy” would simply an ability to “hear” those audibles.
lol eerie looking what is that from?
Star Trek TOS episode “Return of the Archons”
No science fiction that begins this way ends well.

The package said "Try Me" ... sooooo
You're asked some basic questions ... animal? vegetable? mineral? unknown?
It further asks size, shape, weight etc. as well as things like, "does it make you happy?"
I had thought .... THOUGHT, I said ... anteater .. and proceeded to answer honestly the questions.
Two or three times during the sequence, a mocking message would pop up, "I know what you're thinking" ... "You can't fool me" etc.
And in the end, what did it name?
Aardvark!
I bought 10 of 'em at 8 bucks each.
Star Trek TOS episode Return of the Archons
Mark
That’s just great. (the article at the link).
It’s always been my goal to be redundant.
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