Researchers Develop fMRI-Based Model to Reconstruct Moving Images that People Are Seeing
September 23rd, 2011Many articles that I’ve read about this don’t mention the little detail that this is based on data obtained through the use of fMRI. This MIT Technology Review piece deals with that right up front. In case you don’t know, fMRI is not a technology that we’re going to be walking around with anytime soon.
…even so, Brainstorm is still one of my favorite sci-fi movies:
'Brainstorm' 1983 MGM
This AP story contains some other images from the research.
And here’s a video clip:
Via: MIT Technology Review:
Scientists are a step closer to constructing a digital version of the human visual system. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed an algorithm that can be applied to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) imagery to show a moving image a person is seeing.
Neuroscientists have been using fMRI to study the human visual system for years, which involves measuring changes in blood oxygen levels in the brain. This works fine for studying how we see static images, but it falls short when it comes to moving imagery. Individual neuronal activity occurs over a much faster time scale, so a few years ago the researchers behind the current study set out to devise a computer model to measure this instead. The study shows that this new approach is not only successful but remarkably accurate.
The study, which appears in Current Biology this week, marks the first time that anyone has used brain imaging to determine what moving images a person is seeing. It could help researchers model the human visual system on a computer, and it raises the tantalizing prospect of one day being able to use the model to reconstruct other types of dynamic imagery, such as dreams and memories.
Thanks for reminding me of one of my favorite scifi movies. I’ll have to rent that one again.
Once they gain the ability to start projecting these images I’ll really start to worry.
oddly the text recognition was surprisingly dream like, i suppose its a result of cognitive filtering and not lack of resolution? also i found the elephant and human facial recognition in the video very reminiscent of shadow people schizos describe/draw.
anyone who knows anything about TI’s knows something like this has been rumored for a long time, im still on the fence whether its temporal distortion or legit present technology.
mechanical tech not spiritual tech to clarify, and i just gotta say wow what an age we live in, miraculous.
all (totally justified) technological paranoia aside, the idea that dreams and memories could become viewable/share-able is really amazing. as in: wtf unbelievable.
…even without auditory accompaniment.