So here’s something right out of a sci-fi film… a Japanese company has developed a system for visual image reconstruction technology. It uses a functional MRI system for monitoring brainwave activity to the visual cortex when a person views images.
Visual Image Reconstruction Basics
In a few words, this is basically a primitive method for eavesdropping on the information that the eyes feed to the brain. A very fascinating proof of concept. At some point in time they are going to have this refined a bit more. And when this happens, there are plenty of real-world applications for this technology.
What I find more interesting however is the other paths this could explore. The same principals can be applied to visualizing lucid dreams for example. What if you could watch a video of your nightmare’s? That would be awesome for analysis purposes of your psyche. I’m envisioning an appliance as small as your alarm clock that you calibrate while watching the how to video, and then you just put on the night cap when you go to sleep. Then wake up the next morning and you can watch your dreams while having your morning coffee. Think how much easier this would be rather than trying to piece together what happened from memory. All they need to do now is refine the technology. Of course they are going to have to go inside the skull itself to be able to detect the signals better. The matrix comes to mind. But this is a start.