Facebook develops mind reading technology (Topic)

Facebook is seriously thinking about how to turn mind reading, a phenomenon often associated with something supernatural, into an applied technology that everyone can use. The joint work of Facebook researchers and scientists at the University of California is preparing to release a neural interface that will be able to read spoken words and decode them into text.

Brain-Computer Connection

Facebook is actively involved in technology projects on how to learn to read minds, and also funds research in this area. One of them was a scientific experiment conducted on a group of volunteers by neuroscientists at the University of California, San Francisco.

The study involved people who had some brain disorders or had brain surgery. The experiment used a device with electrodes that reads the activity of the cerebral cortex. As the results showed, the device managed, although not with high accuracy, to recognize the words spoken by the participants in the experiment. In the future, scientists are planning to bring the speed of decoding to 100 words per minute, keeping the error of no more than 17%.

Why do you need it

In the future, Facebook plans to use the technology in the development of a personal device capable of translating a mental speech into text. At the same time, invasive operations (when electrodes are directly inserted into the brain through surgical procedures) are not required to establish contact of the device with the brain.

Facebook Corporation is confident that such developments will help people with impaired speech. And with the help of such technology, users will be able to control something or perform actions in virtual or augmented reality, just thinking about it. The corporation intends to acquaint the public with a working model of a portable device capable of reading minds at the end of this year.

Facebook takes financial part in other developments that are somehow connected with the "telepathic" form of information transfer. So, one of these projects is a technology using lasers or optics, which fixes changes in cerebral blood flow, similar to how an MRI machine works.

Closest competitors

Facebook is not the only company that is interested in the development of neural interfaces and other similar technologies. According to analysts, in a couple of years, the world market for computer technology for reading thoughts will be estimated at $ 1.7 billion.

Project Neuralink, funded by Elon Musk, also introduced a mind-reading chip capable of connecting the brain to a computer. The technology involves the implantation of the finest sensors into the brain, which will “download” information from there. The Neuralink project plans that proprietary technology can be used, including for medical purposes.

The Topic of Article: Facebook develops mind reading technology.
Author: Jake Pinkman