Mental Health

'Mind Reading' Computer Can Identify Words Through Brainwaves

By R. Siva Kumar | Update Date: Jan 08, 2016 08:56 AM EST

There is an amazing new "telepathic" computer developed by Japanese scientists, that can "read minds." It can gather information from brainwaves and figure out words even before they are spoken.

Hence, the computer has made scientists understand one thing---the brain's electrical activity is similar, whether words are spoken, or held inside.

"Each syllable produced a specific bit of brain wave activity from the initial thought about the word to the act of speaking it, with the time frame of brain activity taking up to two seconds for each word," according to scienceworldreport.

Yamazaki Toshimasa is the Kyushu Institute of Technology's brain-computer interface expert, who led a team of experts. He probed the minds of 12 men, women and children even as they chanted a series of words, for which their brainwaves were recorded. With the help of an electroencephalogram or EEG, they could locate words in the brain's Broca region.

A database of these brainwaves was built up, which helped them to match them to words without the subject enunciating them. The device built up some algorithms, which located Japanese words for spring and summer ("natsu" and "haru"), 47 percent and 25 percent of the time, reported a paper from the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers.

The device could identify the syllables and letters of the Japanese alphabet in the brainwaves, which made the device decipher words and phrases even when they were not spoken aloud, according to the Daily Mail.

Scientists could find out the Japanese words for "goo," "par" and "scissors" with the computer even before they were enunciated.

While single Japanese characters could be accurately identified almost 90 percent of the time, the Japanese words for "will," "one," "turning," and "do" too could be located about 80-90 percent of the time.

It is interesting that the study can help people who are either paralyzed or are not able to speak or communicate, said Toshimasa.

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