Can YouTube Read Your Mind?

An interesting clip was published by researchers from UC Berkeley earlier this year, which claimed they had managed to use functional MRI data to create a composite YouTube video corresponding to the visual input received by the test subject…

Seeing What The Brain Sees

As reported by Engaget, the procedure was thus: firstly, present a subject with a video stimulus (watch some video clips). Then, the subject’s cerebral responses to the video stimulus are observed via functional magnetic resonance imaging, allowing the scientists to develop a model of which stimulus creates which response patterns in the brain.

With these data in place, the system is then fed 18 million seconds of arbitrary YouTube footage, which it uses to assemble a new video composite to align with the fMRI information.

This is obviously a fairly rudimentary illustration, but the underlying concept is certainly intriguing. Of course, if it’s possible to develop the idea further, it could have huge potential in a medical context, but there are also some interesting considerations for creativity.

For example, if we could extract a high-fidelity image from the brain when the subject merely visualises it (rather than requiring an input stimulus), then it seems likely the movie industry would be revolutionised. Would there be any more need for cameras, sets, actors or special effects? The only limit would literally be the imagination of the ‘director’…

A tad fanciful perhaps, but if the same process could be applied to music, then it is entirely conceivable that songs could be created entirely in one’s head. Ever come up with a riff or sound that you just couldn’t quite translate to record using your collection of instruments, software and plugins? If we could just port sounds across from our minds to our hard drives, the whole process would be very different indeed…



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