In recent years, brain imaging studies have been able to recognize what image a person is looking at purely from brain activity. This is possible because the image maps onto the visual cortex almost like a blurry projection.
The research examines how you remember — and imagine— pictures that you've actually seen. It turns out that similar mechanisms come into play when you imagine something compared to how you process the real thing.
The scanning system is still in its infancy, but it portends the kind of mind-reading device described by science fiction authors. "It's what you would actually use if you were going to build a functional brain-reading device," said Jack Gallant, a neuroscientist from the University of California, Berkeley.
CNN: Brain scans reveal what you've seen
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I wonder how helpful this would be to the artist? Maybe to generate an overall sketch? When I'm down in the nitty gritty of an artwork, I think of it in pieces. Like, is this area defined enough, what edges do I soften here, or checking references and processing them. I'll bet a brain imagining scan would be really confusing if it tried to watch an artist at work.
ReplyDeleteJames, This is such a futuristic idea that for a moment I thought it was April's fools day, but soon I remembered it was February 5th. Great news. Thanks. Paulo - Rio
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