MIND-READING AI THAT RECONSTRUCT THOUGHTS BASED ON BRAIN WAVES

With the developments in brain scanning and AI technology, mind reading is becoming a reality.

Futurists have predicted mind-reading technology for years. And while the detection of brain-wave patterns has been possible for decades, the missing ingredient was the ability to interpret them. Reading brain waves was useless until A.I. got involved. Now mind reading has real-world, practical applications. Mind-reading software is not only ready for commercial use, but it will actually be of practical use in everyday business applications

But now, thanks to artificial intelligence (A.I.) and machine learning, we can finally know what’s going on inside people’s minds.

A recent research study could give a voice to those who no longer have one. Scientists used electrodes and artificial intelligence to create a device that can translate brain signals into speech. This technology could help restore the ability to speak in people with brain injuries or those with neurological disorders such as Epilepsy, Alzheimer disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and with a severe speech disability.

The study recorded the brain activity of five epilepsy patients who already had treatment of brain implants. Electrodes on the brain have been used to translate brainwaves into words spoken by a computer. When you speak, your brain sends signals from the motor cortex to the muscles in your jaw, lips and larynx to coordinate their movement and produce a sound. They were asked to read aloud a list of sentences that the AI algorithm would read and decode the the brain signals to their speech. To accomplish this, the researchers recorded brain signals and fed them to a neural network, which then matched the signals with associated sounds or mouth movements.

The study demonstrated that we can generate entire spoken sentences based on an individual’s brain activity, and with this technology that is already within reach, we should be able to build a device that is clinically viable in patients with speech loss.

The benefit of this technology could truly help those who lost communication skills from a stroke or other diseases and illnesses be able to speak to others. Some worry is, that the technology may work as a “mind reading device” and could compromise people’s private thoughts. However, scientists say we are still a long way off from it being able to accurately simulate speech.

The general process is that the Researchers have developed software that takes readouts from people’s brains and matches them to words or pictures. Once mapped, future readouts can be read, interpreted and used for various kinds of mind-revealing or mental-control applications.

Scientists have created a mind-reading device that also turns mental activity into text with better than 90% accuracy. Instead of understanding the words a person is subvocalizing, it can detect what that person is hearing, with brain activity alone.

Also research has found ways to read “complex thoughts“ based on brain scans, and output text accordingly. The study demonstrated that complex thinking could enable its A.I. to predict the next “sentence” in the thought process.

Even Facebook has a mind-reading project in the works. The social networking company is working on a way for users to send Facebook Messenger messages using thoughts alone.

Microsoft, the OS and user-interface company, was granted patents last year for interfaces that use brain activity to “change the state of a computer or applications.” One example is to turn down the volume of music based on the mental activity of being irritated by loud noise. It could be used for any number of Microsoft-related products, from enhancing the accuracy of a mouse to enabling next-level applications in the company’s products.

A brain–computer interface, sometimes called brain–machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between an enhanced or wired brain and an external device such as computer. Brain-computer interfaces allow us to manipulate computers and machinery with our thoughts. Facebook is making progress on a brain-computer interface and planning on brain-computer interfaces, and their potential integration with Facebook’s VR and AR products.

Mind-reading research is also making gains in reading visuals, not just words.

A recent study was able to roughly re-create faces shown to subjects based on their brain activity. Thirteen subjects were shown 140 faces. Electroencephalogram (EEG) readouts were processed by an A.I. algorithm developed by the scientists, and produced blurry but recognizable copies of what the subjects were shown.

Researchers are certain they’ll soon be able to re-create faces from memory alone, a feat that has obvious law-enforcement applications. There is growing interest in the potential for a technology known as brain fingerprinting to be used in the fight against crime and terrorism. AI could hypothetically interpret our brainwaves as we conduct ourselves in, for example, an airport. It could scan for potentially threatening mental imagery like bombs or firearms and alert airport security.

Japanese researchers are working on a neural network system that performs in a similar way to scan brain waves.. Subjects are shown pictures, then functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans plus A.I. can estimate what those pictures looked like based on blood flow to the brain.

Mind-reading apps are also showing up in smart phones and in other contexts.

The technology is still in it’s nascent stages but the advancements are very impressive. Binary pixels are the thing of the past; the AI can now detect entire objects on it’s own. So, we’re not going to be tie down criminals and drawing perfect reconstructions of a crime scene based on their memories, or using the memories of victims to construct mug shots of criminals, any time soon.

The accuracy and reliability of the technology will only improve going forward. The day is not too far away when machines can decipher exactly what we are thinking. Whether that’s a good thing or an intrusion of privacy, remains to be seen. Already industry leaders are clamoring to get an understanding on to what extent this technology can be used.

The potential applications of this technology are many and blow our mind away. It could paint or reconstruct images from memory simply based on our thoughts. For people with speaking disorders or paralysis, this could be a dream come true. The technology has the potential for crime detection and fight against terrorism. The list is endless.