A team of researchers at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Japan have come out with a technology that is allowing them to reconstruct images from inside a person's mind and display them on a computer monitor. They are indicating that in the non-so-distant future, they will be able to visualise people's dreams while they sleep. The idea behind this technology is nothing complex, and several similar experiments have been tried out in the past utilizing different machinery and sensors, but this is absolutely the first breakthrough of the sort, and an extremly promising one.

The technology utilized was the changes in the cerebral blood flow monitored by a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Machine. The subjects were given tablets containing various images and texts (shown above and below) in tha 10 x 10 pixel matrix. 400 ot these tablents were shown to the subjects for a period of 12 seconds each, and whilst the fMRI monitored changes in brain activity, and a computer elaborated the data with each of the different designs presented. Then when the subjects were demonstrated the tablets with the words N-E-U-R-O-N, the computer was able to reconstruct the words based solely on the subjects' brain activity.

Even though at present the technology is able to reproduce only monochromatic images, Dr. Kang Cheng, a researcher from the RIKEN Brain Science Instititue, indicated that by improving measurement activity, it will be possible to reproduce images in colour. He also stated that in 10 years time, the advancements of the technology will allow us to read out a person's thoughts within a certain degree of accuracy.

But what are the applciations for such a technology? It would be possible to access quickly and easily images within artists' and designers' heads. The technology might also lead to a new approach in the treatment of some psychiatric disorders involving hallucinations, whereby doctors will be provided with a window on the mind of the patient.

That's more to it. According to the ATR chief researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani, the technology can be applied to other senses, making it possible in not such a so distant future to read feelings and complicated emotional states.

Doesn't this make the famous lie detector machine look absurdly absolete?