A reader for the mind of man is almost ready

It's hard To believe, but I think soon the world will cease to be the same. What we saw in sci-Fi movies and thought it was pure fiction — starts to come into our lives. For example, recently, in the scientific journal Nature has published a terrific article, according to which humanity has come close to reading each other's thoughts. Although the device is not yet ready for everyday use, everything goes to the fact that soon it will cease to be fiction. And while it may seem that the membership is greatly exaggerated, in fact it is not. So what is this device and how it works? Let's deal.

What you need to do is to read a person's thoughts?

So, to start we need camera ECoG. It's almost like EEG (when head wear «hat» with the electrodes), with the only difference that the electrodes are placed directly on the cerebral cortex. For this skull you need to drill holes or do a trepanation. Sounds scary, but the measurement accuracy is greatly increased. With this device, scientists read the brain waves during the experiment.

it looks like EEG. In ECoG, the electrodes connect directly to the brain, but we say you will not show

What was the essence of the experiment: before, four subjects were asked to read aloud or silently about 50 proposals, which consisted of a certain number of words. This was necessary in order for the algorithm that reads your brainwaves, accurately understood and to catch repeated words. Similar brain activity was perceived by the algorithm as a particular word. At this stage of the experiment, this restriction is necessary, but in the future it is, of course, will not.

Based On these results the algorithm was graphic and translates them into computer understands machine code. Then, this code was passed on and the system has transformed the data flow in ordinary words. Thus the system was trained and compared the signals of brain waves with our usual words.

look like the readings taken from the ECoG, which are then converted to digital code

In the second phase of the experiment, when the algorithm has already been trained to a specific set of words, the subject had to come up with a phrase using the same words and read them aloud or silently. Next, the system will read and analyze brainwaves and gave the phrase that conceived the subject. Agree, this is something fantastic!

However it should be noted that initially, the error of the system was quite high, but it has been reduced significantly. For example, in one of the 4 people who took part in the experiment, it was only 3%. It is perhaps even higher than that of modern voice assistants.

Another interesting observation was the fact that the error depends on the individual. Apparently, someone articulates his thoughts clearly, and some don't. How our brain works and the human mind, still remains a mystery, but such experiments clearly moved us closer to the answer.

is it Possible to read a person's thoughts?

In his report, scientists noted that a similar system existed before, but they were capable of recognizing only fragments of the words, while the invention can cope with 50 sentences with limited vocabulary. Since the system is based on artificial intelligence algorithms, with time, the vocabulary base will be expanded. Scientists also believe that they will be able to train the system and words not previously studied their algorithm. This will be possible by adding to the analysis of the regularities of the English language.

So we now have a device that can read clearly formulated thoughts. But it should be noted that for precise decoding a person is better to speak words and sentences aloud. Apparently, so the brain is more focused on the phrase and gives a clearer signal which detects camera ECoG. Over time, the algorithms will certainly learn high performance reading of thoughts, even if they are not spoken aloud.

The

To date, the experiment is purely theoretical because its use implies the connection of electrodes directly to the brain, but over time, the sensitivity of the instruments and development of algorithms based on artificial intelligence will overcome this obstacle. And the fact that today scientists have been able to read what we don't say out loud, truly fantastic.

P. S. you know what? If I were asked to come up with the incredible situation in which such a device could be used today, I would easily have coped with this task. Let's imagine a person who as a resultaccident or attack had been paralyzed, but it has important information that will help to find the perpetrator or the perpetrator of the accident. He can't move nor speak, but his brain and ears work fine. In this case, the use of such a device could be useful, don't you think? However, there are other ways to learn something the paralyzed man, but it will be a very different story…

the reader for the thought closer than you can imagine