Monday, October 11, 1999 Published at 19:10 GMT 20:10 UK
Sci/Tech
Looking through cats' eyes
Fuzzy but recognisable
By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse
These are the first pictures from an extraordinary experiment which has probed what it is like to look through the eyes of another creature.
As reported on BBC News Online last week, a team of US scientists have wired a computer to a cat's brain and created videos of what the animal was seeing.
By recording the electrical activity of nerve cells in the thalamus, a region of the brain that receives signals from the eyes, researchers from the University of California at Berkeley were able to view these shapes.
The team used what they describe as a "linear decoding technique" to convert the signals from the stimulated cells into visual images.
By being able to tap directly into the brain and extract a visual image the researchers have produced a "brain interface" that may one day allow the control of artificial organs and indeed machines by thought alone. It is also conceivable that, given time, it will be possible to record what one person sees and "play it back" to someone else either as it is happening or at a later date.
Sci/Tech
Looking through cats' eyes
Fuzzy but recognisable
By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse
These are the first pictures from an extraordinary experiment which has probed what it is like to look through the eyes of another creature.
As reported on BBC News Online last week, a team of US scientists have wired a computer to a cat's brain and created videos of what the animal was seeing.
By recording the electrical activity of nerve cells in the thalamus, a region of the brain that receives signals from the eyes, researchers from the University of California at Berkeley were able to view these shapes.
The team used what they describe as a "linear decoding technique" to convert the signals from the stimulated cells into visual images.
By being able to tap directly into the brain and extract a visual image the researchers have produced a "brain interface" that may one day allow the control of artificial organs and indeed machines by thought alone. It is also conceivable that, given time, it will be possible to record what one person sees and "play it back" to someone else either as it is happening or at a later date.
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