Reading Your Mind With Infrared Brain Imaging

In Canada, a variety of technologies are being introduced into service, these technologies can actually read your mind.

The researchers have found that they can determine the subject's preference with 80% accuracy using Infrared Brain Imaging.

According to Sheena Luu, who led the research,

“This is the first system that decodes preference naturally from spontaneous thoughts. Preference is the basis for everyday decisions.”

The research was published by the Journal of Neural Engineering. According to the Press Release the main idea behind the technology is not to enhance neuromarketing, but to create a non-invasive brain-computer interface for use by handicapped individuals.

The 80% was obtained from a study performed by researchers who asked subjects to choose between one of two drinks. Four out of five times they were able to predict the subject's choice from the IBI's.

Interesting stuff huh? I couldn't help blogging on it after I read it this morning off the Neuroscience Marketing blog.

David Coldewey of Crunch Gear commentted,

"Patients are trained to think of something that lights up a certain area of their brain — a strong memory, a song sung in the head, or a particular image — and this is picked up by the sensor and the patient can decide whether that’s a “yes” or “no” answer. That’s about the limit of things, but consider that it can be used by someone with absolutely no motor control in their body, including eyes and mouth, often the last resort for getting information through. Being able to say “yes” and “no” may sound basic, and it is, but it’s the basic things we take for granted. Hopefully this relatively straightforward and inexpensive method of thought detection will see a rollout sometime soon in hospitals and long-term care facilities."