I Can Read Your Mind…

An artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm is currently being developed that can read images directly from the brain using what is known as a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan. Obviously, the system is only in the early stages of development, but the methods used could someday provide another means for human-computer interaction.

Functional MRI measures changes in brain activity by imaging changes in blood flow. The basic premise is that, when a specific area of the brain is active, the blood flow to that area increases. This information was used to train an AI system, which analyzed the brain scans of subjects while they were looking at an image. By cross-correlating multiple datasets, the system could eventually identify certain patterns of brain activity with certain features within the images.

One group of researchers ran an experiment on three types of images: pictures of objects, letters and shapes. The data they collected included 6,000 images paired with fMRI scans. Upon reconstructing the images, the AI algorithm performed better with letters and shapes than with pictures. There is still much work to be done; neural networks require much more data to produce reliable results, and fMRI scans are expensive to perform. However, the technology holds a great deal of promise for the future, particularly related to the development of neuroprosthetic devices.