It may now appear to be just the stuff of science fiction, but scientists say a mind-reading device is inching its way ever closer to reality.
In fact, an international team claims to have already showed it could tell what someone was hearing just by decoding their brain waves, a breakthrough which may lead to an implant that can interpret imagined speech in patients who can’t talk.
In their research, the scientists demonstrated that the brain breaks down words into complex patterns of electrical activity, which can be decoded and translated back into an approximate version of the original sound.
And as the brain is believed to process thought in a similar way to sound, the research offers hope to thousands of brain-damaged patients who are not being able to communicate with their loved ones, the Daily Telegraph has reported.
Professor Robert Knight, one of the researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, said: “This is huge for patients who have damage to their speech mechanisms because of a stroke and can’t speak... Thousands of people could benefit.”