Extracting Video from the Brain

June 23rd, 2005 | Filed under: Biotech, Future, Mapping, Scary, Science, Technology, Video | 41 Comments »

Garret B. Stanley’s article, published in 1999 in the Journal of Neuroscience, outlines how activity of neurons can be decoded into a reconstructed image. Stanley claims the decoding algorithm is simple since each point in space can be reconstructed at high resolutions from 6 to 8 pairs of cells. The more neurons are tracked, the higher the quality of the reconstruction. The following still frames from a video (top) are actual reconstructions (bottom) from the activity of 177 cells in a cat’s brain.

via pasta and vinegar




41 Comments on “Extracting Video from the Brain”

  1. 1 akaDruid said at 9:17 am on June 23rd, 2005:

    This is very scary – am I right in thinking this is the first stage towards directly reading minds?

  2. 2 Hitesh said at 2:37 pm on June 23rd, 2005:

    awesome, reminds me of “the final cut”

  3. 3 TechnoPrimitive » Blog Archive » Future Feeder » Archive » Extracting Video from the Brain said at 10:58 pm on June 23rd, 2005:

    [...] tion Future Feeder » Archive » Extracting Video from the Brain Future Feeder » Archive » Extracting Video from the [...]

  4. 4 chicagoluser said at 4:48 pm on June 25th, 2005:

    As mentioned, this is pretty old news, though no less cool. I don’t think it has much to do with ‘reading minds’, since the cognitive/consciousness stuff is still basically black-box territory. If it were possible to extract the brain’s own reconstructed imagery (quite a bit of what we ‘see’ isn’t actually sensed by the eye, but rather interpolated by the brain), or to witness ‘imagined imagery’ (Think of a box within a circle, without actually seeing it), then you’re getting closer to mind-reading. This cat-eye stuff seems more like splicing into a video feed.

  5. 5 J. Marcus Xavier said at 11:36 pm on June 27th, 2005:

    Old news, then I must be out of the loop. This is frightening and intriguing all at the same time. If this is true, it could potentially be used for things like artists or designers. I cant count how many times I’ve wished that I could just take something as I see it in my head and get it out into the world. Heck, imagine someday a team of special-effects brainiacs who’s job it is to conjure up impossible things in their minds to be translated to film and used in future movies and sci fi films. The possibilities seem endless.

  6. 6 Jay Oatway said at 1:16 am on June 28th, 2005:

    Doesn’t this portend that we may one day be able to upload our minds? Sure, we’re just starting with fuzzy pictures, but the scanning may soon be able to look elsewhere, perhaps even into places we’ve repressed.

  7. 7 Les Dabney said at 10:29 am on June 28th, 2005:

    If it becomes possible for us to “read” minds would it not be possible for us to reverse the path and beam images directly into the brain?

  8. 8 Jason Gross said at 8:32 pm on September 16th, 2005:

    This has more to do with intercepting the “video” coming from the eyeball, nothing at all to do with your thoughts or memories.

  9. 9 Steve Wight said at 8:43 pm on September 16th, 2005:

    Considering our dreams exist in the visual center of the brain. I see possibilities of making visual records of our dreams. This would be awesome. Seeing all those dreams that you forget so easily… If they could only do it without direct contact, somehow reading the potentials remotely. maybe a ultra utral high resolution cat scan?

  10. 10 Jimmy said at 8:53 pm on September 16th, 2005:

    bahaha cat scan

  11. 11 Joey said at 10:02 pm on September 16th, 2005:

    Well, if you were to sleep in a cat scan, you would have to lie perfectly still all night. I wouldn’t be albe to do that, unless the had some type of thin- no nevermind, my mind needs sleep.

  12. 12 Andrew said at 12:13 am on September 17th, 2005:

    Now this would be very interesting if you could record visions people have while on drugs like LSD or DMT.

  13. 13 qwerty said at 12:14 am on September 17th, 2005:

    Dude this stuff is leet. Just think of the possibilies. Cats could be the scouts of future wars. They could also be like a video camera when you don’t have one.

    Espionage – nobody suspects that a cat is recording everything it sees, but recording the video feed of the cat would make the cat a secret video camera.

    I wonder how long it will be until someone finds a way to extract audio from the cat’s brain.

    “This cat-eye stuff seems more like splicing into a video feed.”
    If its possible to intercept video from the eyeball to the brain, maybe there will be a way to inject video. It’d be like a personal TV! or more like a creepy halucination – either way it would totally freak out your cat!

  14. 14 That Guy said at 1:28 am on September 17th, 2005:

    Folklore and reported incidents (and hollywood, or course) all claim that cats can see ghosts. They need to keep the video running so we can see some spooks!

  15. 15 dado1945 said at 2:01 am on September 17th, 2005:

    I see place for superresolution :)

  16. 16 Theo said at 2:16 am on September 17th, 2005:

    Children, Children, Children… This is FAKE! So what Universitry or scientific group did this study? We don’t know how our minds code the electric

  17. 17 Theo said at 2:25 am on September 17th, 2005:

    signals sent from our eyes. Your mind does not read an image like a jpeg. Your brain receives images in inconsistent, layered and lightning fast streams of information that only a human brain can make sense of.

    Sorry to spoil the party.

  18. 18 Shinobo said at 4:12 am on September 17th, 2005:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/468857.stm

    Let the party continue.

  19. 19 jimbo92107 said at 4:29 am on September 17th, 2005:

    This means that, with the proper interface (admittedly highly complex), a person could “tap in” on another person’s immediate perceptions of sight, sound, tactile, smell…

    But could you tap into someone’s memories of past events?

    The encoding of memories would be combinations of all the senses, scattered over neural complexes all over the brain. The memory “images” would probably be rather indistinct, except perhaps for highly intense ones.

    This tech might be combined with rapid cooling and blood-for-saline substitution to possibly retrieve the last images from a dead man’s brain, preserved by chilling the recently deceased’s body. If the short-term memory center could be tapped in a similar manner.

  20. 20 jimbo92107 said at 4:31 am on September 17th, 2005:

    I’d still like to strap a tiny video cam atop a cat’s head and watch it chase a mouse up a flight of stairs.

  21. 21 » ×?רכיון » חשוב לזכור said at 7:15 am on September 17th, 2005:

    [...] שליפת תמונות מהמוח יצירת ×?ר ×?ס ×?ס [...]

  22. 22 Broken » Blog Archive » Extracting Video from the Brain said at 8:10 am on September 17th, 2005:

    [...] read more | digg story [...]

  23. 23 dark_lard said at 8:11 am on September 17th, 2005:

    Okay, first of all, it’s not fake. Secondly you CAN input video to the brain. They are actually still doing video trials on people that could once see but have since been blinded. There was even a news report about it showing a man that had lost his eyesite driving in a parking lot. They took micro cameras mounted them to a pair of glasses and converted all of it into signals the brain new how to read. The man said it was pretty blurry and depth perception really wasn’t there BUT he could see well enough to drive through a turning path of cones only hitting a few.

  24. 24 Cesar’s Blog/Vlog och nyheter » Blog Archive » Se dina drömar said at 7:49 pm on September 17th, 2005:

    [...] Garret B. Stanley skrev 1999 en artikel i tidningen Journal of Neuroscience hur man kodar av neuronernas aktivitet för att få fram en bild av det man tänker. Se bilder från 177 katt celler som har kodats av. [...]

  25. 25 killrighty.net » Welcome to the matrix said at 3:02 pm on September 18th, 2005:

    [...] From futurefeeder.com Dr. Stanley is Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. He is the ultimate voyeur. He jacks into brains and extracts video. [...]

  26. 26 Adjust fake tie, Find a window, Exit through it » Blog Archive » Extracting Video from the Brain said at 6:55 pm on September 18th, 2005:

    [...] Mind reading in its infancy? [...]

  27. 27 peter said at 2:56 pm on September 19th, 2005:

    que hijos de putaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

  28. 28 Bob said at 3:54 pm on September 19th, 2005:

    It’s not right to do this to innocent animals…the scientists are gouls and should be put to death.

  29. 29 [c]onfusionism » links for 2005-09-21 said at 3:16 am on September 21st, 2005:

    [...] Future Feeder » Archive » Extracting Video from the Brain oh fuck yeah, sign me up! (tags: brain science video) [...]

  30. 30 Bob said at 3:15 pm on September 23rd, 2005:

    THis is also a big step towards artificial eyes for blind people (well as long and thier not blind because of brain damage)

  31. 31 JoeGuamaYoMomma said at 4:56 pm on September 23rd, 2005:

    Like OMG!! This could like totally be used for MIND READING OMG!

  32. 32 tech poetic » Blog Archive » [Misc] Splicing into the video feed of… YOU. said at 1:22 pm on September 24th, 2005:

    [...] Scientists have figured out how to read the neurons in a brain to reconstruct an image… pics in the link of actual images pulled from a brain. This is pretty crazy. [...]

  33. 33 Webblazed.com » Blog Archive » Extracting Video from the Brain said at 2:06 am on October 23rd, 2005:

    [...] read more | digg story [...]

  34. 34 Steve said at 9:57 am on November 29th, 2005:

    If it was true it would be very exciting. But I like the way pretty much everyone has ignored the fact they hack animals to pieces to do this kind of research.
    http://photos1.blogger.com/img/27/2313/320/vivisection2.jpg

  35. 35 loridunkin.com » Extracting Video from the Brain said at 2:59 pm on April 1st, 2006:

    [...] read more | digg story [...]

  36. 36 Squidy said at 4:59 am on May 4th, 2006:

    Theres a strange thing about the way humans use animals, the fact that if we didn’t, these animals wouldn’t exist. If we suddenly stoped farming animals for food they would become extinct. Through history we have changed animals so much that they become helpless in the wild.

    Im not sure what im saying, but its interesting.

  37. 37 Onur Pay said at 6:43 pm on February 1st, 2007:

    yea the blind people. it s good thing to hear.. but we know all good stuffs use to be for bad things. whatsoelse.. it is really good thing to watch a dream. if mind could be recorded on a versatile disk.. wow. a perfect sector could be the greatest in the world like movie sector. for example; an schizoid paranoid person’s dreams.. i say just wow. great industry.. “the dream movies – benitto’s dream vol-II” lol.

  38. 38 Metin Ergökta? » her?eyin kayd? tutuluyor… said at 4:20 pm on November 16th, 2008:

    [...] 1999 y?l?nda yay?nlanm?? eski bir makale (ama yinede payla?mak istedim) genel olarak, nöronlardaki hareketlili?in bir görüntü olarak çözülebilirli?inden bahsediyor. Yazar Garret B. Stanley Journal of Neuroscience dergisindeki makalesinde , uzaydaki her nokta beyin içinde 6 ile 8 nöron(hücre) çiftiyle kodlanabildigini ve bunlardan elde edilebildigini söylüyor. http://futurefeeder.com/index.php/archives/2005/06/23/extracting-video-from-the-brain/ [...]

  39. 39 dinle said at 1:49 pm on October 9th, 2009:

    THis is also a big step towards artificial eyes for blind people (well as long and thier not blind because of brain damage

  40. 40 mp3 dinle said at 4:30 pm on December 20th, 2009:

    thanks for the summm

  41. 41 spikerlik said at 6:54 am on March 31st, 2010:

    u must be kidding. this is a great thing. like sci-fi movies..


Leave a Reply

  • Powered by WP Hashcash

-->