Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Technology => Topic started by: MarianaM on 21/08/2019 12:10:33

Title: Can we turn text into thought waves?
Post by: MarianaM on 21/08/2019 12:10:33

Paul is wondering...

A few weeks ago I heard about thought waves being interpreted in text or speech. Is anyone researching the opposite so that I could lie in bed at night with my eyes closed but wearing a soft hat which conveys messages to my mind so that I can read my textbooks without having to use my eyes? I know there are podcasts but I have textbooks I want to read.

Can anyone help?

Title: Re: Can we turn text into thought waves?
Post by: jeffreyH on 21/08/2019 21:26:37

Lie down and close your eyes. Attach some earphones to a Kindle and voila you have text to thought waves. An audio book is far simpler than trying to complicate things.

Title: Re: Can we turn text into thought waves?
Post by: evan_au on 21/08/2019 23:09:54

Quote from: OP

Can we turn text into thought waves?

Yes; it's called "reading"!

But doing it with your eyes closed is more of a challenge!
- There are image-to-text tools that can turn the image of a page into a file of text
- There are text-to-speech tools that can read out your textbook to you
- There are cochlear implants that can turn sound into nerve impulses
- I expect that mechanically handling the physical pages would be one of the more difficult parts of the exercise.
- That works for textbooks that are purely text, but what if the textbook contains equations, diagrams or pictures?

Injecting nerve impulses at the cochlea is relatively simple - these signals are somewhat related to the audible sounds.
- However, a very short way into the auditory nerve (let alone the brain), these sounds are represented in abstract ways that are very different from the external world - and probably very individual for a particular person
- Even in the retina, visual signals are represented in abstract ways that are very different from the external world - and probably very individual for a particular person. This is before the impulses are carried by the optic nerve into the brain. But retina prosthetic researchers are making (slow) progress towards presenting blobs of light as nerve impulses.

Injecting a textbook directly into the brain (like The Matrix) is far beyond our current technology.