Advertisement for a mind reading show around the year 1900. A true possibility in the near future. (Artist- Russell Morgan via wiki)
Documents can be found, digital information can be hacked, and friends can gossip. The only truly secure place we have for ourselves is in our head. However, mind reading technology is inevitable, and the military may soon have one of the newest devices to assist them in reading minds. Eric Elbot and his company, Veritas Scientific, are developing a helmet that would monitor electrical activity in the brain in order to determine if the subject recognizes certain images.
Elbot's helmet is being created to be about the size of a motorcycle helmet and fitted with a visor and metal brushes inside. In addition, the helmet will work by reading specific types of brain activities known as event related potentials (ERPs). Through the visor images will flash centimeters before the patients eyes, and the metal brushes would be inside to read the brain signals. According to research, when a patient sees an image they recognize, there is a extremely brief dip in the EEG less than 500 milliseconds after seeing the image. The response is known as a P300 and is a well known effect in the psychology and neuroscience communities.
Elbot may have is work set out for him. P300 signals can be tricky to work with and can also be triggered by certain distractions. Additionally, stress and depression can affect the readings and EEG readings are already noisy as they are. There are a lot of additional factors that come into to play that seem to make this a highly inaccurate way to come to a conclusion. However, Elbot and his team are working on making the machine as accurate as possible and also state that they will be including infrared imaging in the helmet to measure blood flow. Soon the government may know everything we have on our minds.
Veritas Scientific logo and possibly the symbol of the world's worst nightmare. (via Veritas Scientific)
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