- Meta tests a machine that decodes brain signals in tapped words on a computer.
- The brain type system is up to 80% precise but far from practical.
- The machine is half-tonne, costs $ 2 million, needs an armored piece and even light head movements disrupt the signal.
Meta shows a machine capable of transforming your thoughts into tapped words on a screen, but don’t expect to write your telepathic Instagram legends as soon as it is. The device weighs approximately half-tonne, costs $ 2 million and is about as portable as a refrigerator. So, unless you plan to lug a magnetotphalography (MEG) scanner of quality in the laboratory, you will not send mental texts anytime soon. And it is even before considering how you cannot even slightly move your head when using it.
However, what Meta did is impressive. Their AI and neuroscience teams have formed a system that can analyze cerebral activity and determine the keys that someone puts pressure – purely based on thought. There are no implanted electrodes, no science fiction strips, just a deep neural network deciphering brain waves from the outside. Research, detailed in a pair of newly published articles, reveals that the system is up to 80% precise to identify the letters of brain activity, which allows it to rebuild complete sentences of the thoughts of a typing.
While tapping sentences, a volunteer is inside a scanner Meg, which looks a bit like a giant hairdryer. The scanner picks up the magnetic signals of neurons pulling in the brain, and a model of AI, aptly named Brain2qwerty, goes to the learning work which signals correspond to the keys. After enough training, he can predict the letters that a person beats. The results were not perfect, but could reach levels of precision up to 80%.
Brain dactylography
Telepathetic typing has real limits for now. The scanner must be in a specially armored room to block the magnetic field of the earth, which is a Billion of times stronger than what is in your head. In addition, the slightest tilt of the head blurs the signal. But there is more than another meta-marqué product. Research could really stimulate brain science and ultimately medical care for brain damage and diseases.
“To explore how the brain transforms thoughts into complex sequences of motor actions, we used AI to help interpret the Meg signals while the participants have caught sentences. Words, syllables and even individual letters,” said Meta in a blog article. “Our study shows that the brain generates a sequence of representations which begin from the most abstract level of representations – the meaning of a sentence – and gradually transform them into a myriad of actions, such as the real movement of the fingers on the keyboard . “
Despite its limits, the non -invasive aspect of Meta’s research is a much less frightening approach than pouring a computer chip in your brain, because companies like Neuralink test. Most people did not register for elective brain surgery. Even if a product is not the indicated objective of research, the historic points demonstrate that giant machines linked to the laboratory do not have to stay like this. A tiny smartphone does what a construction size computer could not in the 1950s. Maybe the cerebral scanner today is portable tomorrow.
