BRAINIACS
A CREEPY "mind-reading" tool has been invented by Russian scientists.
By tracking your brain waves, the Sci-Fi tech can allegedly reconstruct what you're thinking in real-time.
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In a video released by scientists in Moscow, a test subject is shown with their head wired up to a complicated headset.
They're played video clips while the mind-reading tool attempts to recreate what's on the screen by reading their brain waves.
On several occasions, the tech appears to copy the videos bang on in an impressive display of brain-tracking prowess.
The tool was developed by researchers at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT).
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The team said their finding could help in the development of gadgets we control using our brains.
Experts have previously claimed that such devices, such as phones and TVs you browse through just by thinking, could come as soon as the 2020s.
The Russian tech may also help with projects like Neuralink, run by billionaire Elon Musk, which aims to merge our brains with computers.
Stroke patients also stand to benefit with the invention of a device that lets them control an exoskeleton, allowing them to walk again.
What is Elon Musk's Neuralink?
Here's everything you need to know...
- Neuralink is a project that aims to embed computer chips in people's brains
- The idea is to give humans hyper-intelligence by merging them with artificial intelligence
- Tiny threads thinner than a human hair would pump information into your noggin
- It would work a bit like an internet cable, transmitting data in and out at high speeds
- As well as making us smarter, the project promises to merge us with computers and phones
- That means you could control your gizmos with your brain
- Neuralink is bankrolled by billionaire entrepeneur Elon Musk
- He's previously said the tech could save us from a machine uprising in future
"We're focussing on a brain-computer interface that enables post-stroke patients to control an arm exoskeleton for rehabilitation purposes," said Vladimir Konyshev, who heads the Neurorobotics Lab at MIPT.
"It could also help paralysed patients to drive, for example, an electric wheelchair.
"The ultimate goal is to increase the accuracy of neural control for healthy individuals, too."
The mind-reading tool essentially works by reading small electrical pulses within the brain.
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It then converts readings of these impulses called EEGs into signals that can be understood by a computer.
To test the gadget, researchers strapped it to volunteers' heads and had them watch 20 minutes’ worth of 10-second YouTube clips.
They included first-person recordings of car races as well as waterfalls, humans faces and abstract shapes.
The system passed the test, generating convincing images in 90 per cent of the cases, scientists said.
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"Researchers used to think that studying brain processes via EEG is like figuring out the internal structure of a steam engine by analysing the smoke left behind by a steam train,” explained scientist Grigory Rashkov.
"We did not expect that it contains sufficient information to even partially reconstruct an image observed by a person. Yet it turned out to be quite possible."
Tech that reads our brain waves is on the rise, with Musk's Neuralink project planning to start wiring people's brains to the internet as early as next year.
The scheme will apparently use brain-reading "threads" to turn you into a genius – and even let you control gadgets with just a thought – by merging your mind with artificial intelligence.
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Musk says the harebrained scheme will "save the human race" by helping us outwit super-intelligent machines of the future when they try to take over Earth.
Not all experts are convinced, however.
"You’ve got to open people’s skulls and put electrodes on the surface of their brain," said UCL's Mark Huckvale.
"It’s quite a serious piece of surgery for something that might not be particularly worthwhile."
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Would you get a brain scan with the Russian scientists? Let us know in the comments...
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