Future Tech: computers that can read your mind

We may be getting closer to HAL 9000 before too long. Scientists have tested a computer which can accurately predict what you are looking at 90 percent of the time. In the study, the system was able to tell what people were seeing just by watching test subjects' brain patterns.

By exposing people to various stock photography, the computer literally "got to know" the person. After it learned a little about how they reacted when seeing fruit, for example, it could simply watch their brains later and tell the next time that person was seeing fruit.

Even if it was a different photo, it could predict what they were looking at. This could be a building block to construct systems capable of reading people's mind in more advanced ways later on. Wouldn't it be neat to peer into dreams at night? We may be able to do exactly that in the future!