2010-04-11

Intel's Mind-Reading Software


FOX News.com

Intel Shows Off Mind-Reading Software


NEW YORK-- Mind reading may no longer be the domain of psychics and fortune tellers -- now some computers can do it, too.

Intel demos software that reads your mind

At Intel's Tech Heaven event in Manhattan on Wednesday, the company demonstrated software under development that can tell--under very controlled circumstances--what a person is thinking by reading brain waves. The chipmaker has been working with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh to develop software and an interface to convert brain waves scanned from MRIs into something recognizable by computers.

Though still in the early research stages, the technology looks promising to researchers. In a preliminary test conducted by Intel Labs senior researcher Dean Pomerleau, the system scanned a person's brain to record its activity while showing the person certain words, specifically concrete objects like "barn" and "house" and "screwdriver."




'Mind-reading' brain scan software debuts


The Human Brain demo is a joint project between Intel, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh to allow thought-based user interfaces.

The software analyses functional MRI scans to determine what parts of a person's brain is being activated as he or she thinks. In tests, it guessed with 90 per cent accuracy which of two words a person was thinking about, said Intel Labs researcher Dean Pomerleau.

Eventually, the technology could help the severely physically disabled to communicate. And Pomerleau sees it as an early step toward one day being able to control technology with our minds.

Carnegie Mellon Scientists Crack
Brain's Codes for Noun Meanings

Identifying Thoughts Through Brain Codes Leads To Deciphering the Brain's Dictionary

"In effect, we discovered how the brain's dictionary is organized," said Just, the D.O. Hebb Professor of Psychology and director of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging. "It isn't alphabetical or ordered by the sizes of objects or their colors. It's through the three basic features that the brain uses to define common nouns like apartment, hammer and carrot."
    
As the researchers report today in the journal PLoS One, the three codes or factors concern basic human fundamentals: (1) how you physically interact with the object (how you hold it, kick it, twist it, etc.); (2) how it is related to eating (biting, sipping, tasting, swallowing); and (3) how it is related to shelter or enclosure. The three factors, each coded in three to five different locations in the brain, were found by a computer algorithm that searched for commonalities among brain areas in how participants responded to 60 different nouns describing physical objects. For example, the word apartment evoked high activation in the five areas that code shelter-related words.
    
In the case of hammer, the motor cortex was the brain area activated to code the physical interaction. "To the brain, a key part of the meaning of hammer is how you hold it, and it is the sensory-motor cortex that represents 'hammer holding,'" said Cherkassky, who has a background in both computer science and neuroscience.

Sources:
  1. FOXNews.com - Intel Shows Off Mind-Reading Software
  2. Intel demos software that reads your mind | Cutting Edge - CNET News
  3. 'Mind-reading' brain scan software debuts
  4. Jan. 13: Carnegie Mellon Scientists Crack Brain's Codes for Noun Meanings - Carnegie Mellon University
Related:
  1. Intel Labs - Pittsburgh
  2. Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging
  3. Intel: Chips in brains will control computers by 2020 - Computerworld
  4. 'Mind-Reading' Brain-Scan Software Showcased in NY - ABC News
  5. Showcase Overview: Tech Heaven - Intel Technology Innovation On Display - Powered by Google Docs
  6. 'Mind-reading' brain-scan software showcased in NY
  7. Incredible new interface from Intel will actually read your thoughts | DVICE