Non-invasively projecting sensory data onto this...

Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix

IMAGINE movies and computer games in which you get to smell, taste and perhaps even feel things. That's the tantalising prospect raised by a patent on a device for transmitting sensory data directly into the human brain - granted to none other than the entertainment giant Sony.

The technique suggested in the patent is entirely non-invasive. It describes a device that fires pulses of ultrasound at the head to modify firing patterns in targeted parts of the brain, creating "sensory experiences" ranging from moving images to tastes and sounds. This could give blind or deaf people the chance to see or hear, the patent claims.

Now this could get me interested in the Food Network.

U.S. Patent 6,729,337 -  Method and system for generating sensory data onto the human neural cortex

Comments

[B.C., Imperial Torturer™]

It describes a device that fires pulses of ultrasound at the head to modify firing patterns in targeted parts of the brain, creating "sensory experiences" ranging from moving images to tastes and sounds.

Can you imagine the ramifications of this kind of technology being used to give "sensory experiences" to people who would be testifying in court as "witnesses" against someone with whom the holder of such a device has "issues"?

Nothing like having a person, or a group of persons, who have the EXACT SAME, bullet-proof recollection of "sensory experiences" against a defendant in, say, a capital punishment case.

Not trying to sound alarmist, but this shi'ite makes the hair on the back of the neck stand up if one thinks about it enough.

*Cue the Orwellian music*

[Beth]

Yeah... this is just scary... on way too many levels...

[Moze]

Isn't this what Emeril means when he uses the term "Smellavision?"

Isn't there agreement that lavender smells good?

That said, when a technology sounds to me like putting a glove on the brain, the line has been crossed...

Cheers,

[Wombat]

Humm..... Conspiracy theorists jump out from under the bed and yell "Ah Ha!

Did you all miss this? Quote [This could give blind or deaf people the chance to see or hear, the patent claims.]