Summary: Combining EEG brain function data, brain-computer interface technology, and artificial intelligence, researchers have created a system that can generate an image of what a person is thinking. Researchers at the University of Helsinki have developed a technique in which a computer models visual perception by monitoring human brain signals. In a way, it is as if the computer tries to imagine what a human is thinking about. As a result of this imagining, the computer is able to produce entirely new information, such as fictional images that were never before seen. The technique is based on a novel brain-computer interface.

Most people have occasionally experienced an awkward hug/handshake combination where one person goes in for a hug while the other extends a hand to shake. Still, more often, humans are able to anticipate how to meet another person's greeting, thanks to years of experience with human interaction. But can a machine develop the same kind of intuition? Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) in Cambridge set out to train a computer to be able to predict how people will greet each other. And their algorithm can do just that.