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I say “thought decoding” instead of “mind reading”, because what researchers are working on is a way to decode and analyse brain activity in order to predict the thought, or more precisely, the image in a person’s mind. So far they’ve had limited success using small sample sizes of YouTube videos and thorough scans to study brain activity in order to assume which videos would produce what sort of activity.

The research is freaky with a heaping serving of awesome, and I can’t wait until mindcasts are the newest trend. [New Scientist]

Here’s how it works: subjects were given a variety of stimuli, ranging from a series of flashing lights and a driving simulator to just sitting still in silence, while changes in brain activity were monitored by MRI. The results were then passed through software that assigns specific tones to different regions of the brain, netting something like a song for each scan.

These impulses aren’t inherently musical—they’ve been deliberative assigned tones that sound nice together, and even so sound rather chaotic—nor would you expect them to be, since this is just a novel way to present MRI. What’s fascinating is how noticeably different the sounds of active and dormant brains, or troubled and untroubled brains actually are. And not to diminish the seriousness of schizophrenia in any way, but the scanned map and accompanying sounds for an affected brain, seen at about 40 seconds into the video, are nothing short of awesome. [New Scientist]

This means both developers at large studios as well as dudes in their basement can make programs and games that do things with the data generated by the headset. And you generate data just by thinking a certain way.

What kind of stuff can these developers do? Well, for larger companies they can make this an additional controller to supplement their normal games, such as reloading just by concentrating or lifting boxes and “setting crap on fire.” Independent developers can make weird one-off games that can really stretch the limits of what the Neurosky Mindset can read from your brain. Or porn games. [Neurosky]

Creator Alan Rorie says that the concept behind the Neuron Chamber is that there are alien brains inside the chamber that are under observation, and we’re watching the cerebral process at work. In this case, it’s an reaction moving from the Soma down the Axon of the neuron.

In actual terms, this is an arc puller causing an atmospheric reaction that looks like a flame moving down the rail. Rorie likens the design to a horizontal Jacob’s Ladder. Throw in some steampunky elements for good measure and you get a pretty neat art exhibit. [Almost Scientific]

Audio clip courtesy NYT.

The chair displays a realtime 3D HUD while the user concentrates on basic functions, such as rotating the chair left or right. That information is read by the chair via EEG waves (the electricity running along your scalp as a byproduct of your brain working). It’s the same idea we’ve seen in recent game controllers, but applied to a more practical use.

The chair also features laser sensors, allowing it to override a circumstance in which a misreading could drive the user into a wall or an innocent bystander.

As I said, we’re seeing this technology pop up in a few different places…which seems to imply that researchers, in general, are on to something. [University of Zaragoza via Times Online via medgadget via ubergizmo]

Anders Sandberg has run a few back-of-the-napkin calculations on what it might take, power-wise, to sustain a theoretical mechanical brain:

How efficient could a postbiological civilization be? The current IBM roadrunner does 376 million calculations per watts. If we take my mid-range estimates of computing needs, 10^22 to 10^25 FLOPS, then a single emulation would need 10^13 to 10^16 watts. The total insolation of Earth is about 10^17 watts, so this won’t do – there would be space for just a few minds on the entire planet. But current research on zettaflops computing suggest we can do much better. A DARPA exascale study suggests we can do 10^12 flops per watt, which means “just” a dozen Hoover dams per mind.

But this first projection is flawed, which Sandberg admits; it exists in a future that has borne a mechanical brain, but that is for some reason bound to the computing technologies of the early 21st century. Assuming advances like Quantum Dot computing, which Sandberg thinks could create a 200-2000-watt mind (apparently 2-20 times our current brain draw), and other, more distant/less grounded concepts, he sees a future in which a mechanical mind might be extremely efficient:

The quantum dot computer mentioned above is not the most effective computer imaginable. Using reversible computation there could in principle be calculations done at no energy dissipation. Unfortunately it would still be needed for error correction and interacting with the real world. A conservative bound would be assuming one irreversible operation every millisecond at every synapse, which leads to 10^17 operations and an energy dissipation of 3*10^-6 watts per degree – colder computers are more efficient. Using just liquid nitrogen (77 Kelvin) the energy requirements of a mind would be on the order of 0.0002 watts, 20% of an optical disc player laser. Even adding in the costs of cooling and manufacturing the hardware, it seems likely that this kind of postbiological human would be extremely resource efficient.

Of course, these predictions are equal parts futurist ramblings and science, so at the later end they’re close to meaningless. But they’re fun! [Andart via BoingBoing Gadgets]

Jesting aside, the work of the Neural Interfaces Technology Research & Optimisation Lab at the University of Wisconsin is pretty sweet—especially if you’ve seen The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and have had nightmares like I have of being “locked in” due to a brain injury of some kind. But where Jean-Dominique Bauby had to blink out his incredible novel from his hospital bed, this EEG-controlled interface, examples of which have existed for some time, would make things considerably easier to write your locked-in masterwork.

Something about pairing an EEG interface with Twitter though, bypassing every possible failsafe that might prevent you from oversharing your lunch with the world, makes a lot of sense. [NITRO Lab Blog]

This Force Trainer, priced at $US90-$US100, hooks up to your head via wireless headset and transmits your reading to the toy, which blows air and moves the ball up the chute. Like Brain Training for the DS, you level up gradually depending on your skill. Unlike Brain Training, when you succeed, a white ball jumps clumsily. [USA Today via Geekologie]