Computers May Be Able to 'Read' Thoughts
From: St. Louis Post-Dispatch - 07/06/2009
By: Liz Stoever

Washington University in St. Louis researchers have developed technology that
gives computers the ability to understand speech imagined in the mind. "The
idea is to basically connect people with devices and machines through their
thoughts directly," says Washington University Medical School neurologist
Eric Leuthardt. The research is based on brain-computer interface (BCI)
technology, which monitors brainwaves and uses computers to decode those
signals and transform them into action. So far, BCI research efforts have
only been able to decode imagined actions. The ability to decode imagined
speech will make mentally communicating with computers far easier. Leuthardt
says the technology will better connect humans and machines, and will give
the disabled unprecedented access to the world. Leuthardt and Washington
University biological engineer Daniel Moran have developed video games that
can be played with the mind. Players control the game by imagining an action.
For example, imagining moving the left hand may mean moving left, while
imagining moving the tongue may create upward movement. The system has only
been tested on a few people because the sensors used require brain surgery.
So far, children with epilepsy have been given the chance to participate
because they already have similar equipment surgically implanted to locate
electric signals in the brain. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/sciencemedicine/story/D8AE00548427D1F4862575EB0003BBD6?OpenDocument

Links:
Eric C. Leuthardt, MD
http://plexus.wustl.edu/surgery/neuro/website.nsf/LUF/4DA02371FDCC0784862572B30070F665?OpenDocument

Leuthardt Research Lab
http://neurosurgery.wustl.edu/surgery/neuro/website.nsf/LURes/F72B759A7AE428C5862573150061A5D3?OpenDocument

Reading the Surface of the Brain
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22739/page1/

Helping Stroke Victims by Harnessing Signals from Half of the Brain
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=one-hemisphere-two-hands

Daniel Moran
http://engineering.wustl.edu/facultybio.aspx?faculty=112&department=2

Moran Lab
http://labs.seas.wustl.edu/bme/dmoran/

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI)
http://labs.seas.wustl.edu/bme/dmoran/Research/BCI.htm