Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a newly developed computer can read a person’s thoughts and translate them into full sentences, according to a report published Monday in the British scientific journal Nature Neuroscience.
The researchers said the “decoder” was developed to read the person’s brain activity and translate what they want to say into understandable language.
Comments by lead study author Jerry Tang, of the University of Texas at Austin, as reported by United Press International:
• “We hope this technology will help people who have lost the ability to speak due to injuries, such as strokes.”
• “We used our brain response decoder, asking a person to imagine they were telling stories or giving answers while watching silent movies.”
• “We have found that the decoder is able to take most of what the user imagined or saw, and translate it.”
According to the researchers, the decoder is able to capture what a person is thinking, but not always in exact words.
For example, the device translated the idea: “I don’t have a driver’s license yet” into these words: “I haven’t started learning to drive yet”.
Tang explained that the technology is not at the stage where it can be used with anyone, as the development of the program required it to be used at least 16 hours on each of the three people involved in the research.
He also pointed out that “one person’s brain readings cannot be applied to another person, and the actual examination also involves the person’s cooperation, and can be distorted by simple mental tasks that distort the concentration of the participant”.
The technology has raised concerns about people’s “mental privacy” and what they think, prompting Tang and his team to take action to issue a warning about it.
“All of this may change as technology improves, so we believe it’s important to continue to research the privacy implications of brain decoding and adopt policies that protect everyone’s mental privacy. “, said Tang.
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