This Wearable MRI Device Could Help Us Read Minds – Futurism

In Brief Mary Lou Jepsen, former head of display technology at Oculus, has founded a startup called Openwater that hopes "to create a wearable to enable us to see the inner workings of the body and brain at high resolution." A Wearable MRI

What if you couldseedirectly into another persons brain? Theability to read minds, referred to as telepathy, is yet another concept thatsabundant in science fiction, but a former Facebook executive says that we could all be capable of at least seeing inside someone elsesmind provided that were equipped with the right technology.

Mary Lou Jepsen was the head of display technology at Oculus before founding her own startup called Openwater. The companys goal, while ambitious, is in theory quite simple: to create a wearable to enable us to see the inner workings of the body and brain at high resolution. In short, telepathy courtesy of a brain-computer interface (BCI) a wearable device that works like an Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine.

I dont think this is going to take decades, Jepsen said of the techs development, during an interview withCNBC. I think were talking about less than a decade, probably eight years until telepathy. Her company plans to make avery limited number of prototypes available to their early access partners by next year.

Wearable MRI technology could be quite an asset in terms ofdisease diagnosis and treatment. With just one quick look, a physician couldsee whats happening inside a persons brain, or elsewherein the body.Of course, this raises many questions and concerns about privacy, which Jepsen says the company is working on. Were trying to make the hat only work if the individual wants it to work, and then filtering out parts that the person wearing it doesnt feel its appropriate to share, she said.

Openwater isnt the only one working to give the human brain machine-like capabilities. In fact, Facebook is also developing a device similar to Jepsens. BCIs, which already haveapplications in prosthesis use, could also become apopular means to prepare humankind for future of intelligent machines.

This is whatTesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has in mind withhis mind/machine merging venture, Neuralink. The U.S. Department of Defenses research arm,DARPA, is also working on projects that would combinehumans with machines. Another company is Kernel, which has been working on a neuroprosthesis that can make the brains neural code programmable.

Disclosure: Bryan Johnson is an investor in Futurism; he does not hold a seat on our editorial board or have any editorial review privileges.

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This Wearable MRI Device Could Help Us Read Minds - Futurism