Robot Interprets, Plays Back Dreams

foobarx writes "Digital artists have created a humanoid robot which uses brainwave activity recorded during sleep to playback an interpretation of your dreams. The artists, Brendan Burns and Fernando Orellana used machine learning to find patterns in the brainwaves and then matched these patterns to dreams which they remembered having. Others have noted the possible hazards of this new technology."

Just Imagine....

[ZonkerWilliam (953437)]

This could be embarrassing if it reenacts my wet dreams of Eva Longoria...Ummm my wife I mean, ya my wife!

Re:Just Imagine....

[garett_spencley (193892)]

I have wet dreams about your wife. Does that count ?

Just trying to help get you out of trouble.

Re:Just Imagine....

[by Anonymous Coward]

Her seeing your dreams would be embarrassing, but you'll feel even more embarrassed (and inadequate) when you see her dreams.

Re:Just Imagine....

[hal2814 (725639)]

Reminds me of a joke:

A man and his wife just married and were going into their new home. The man was carrying his wife over the threshold and said to her, "Honey, did you ever in your wildest dreams think I'd be carrying you over the threshold into a big new beautiful home?"

The wife responded, "I hate to break this to you, but you're not in my wildest dreams."

From the hazards...

[snl2587 (1177409)]

Sleep Waking Dream Enacting Robot Will Get You Dumped, Fired, Arrested, Punched in the Wiener

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll pass on this one...

Re:From the hazards...

[Impy the Impiuos Imp (442658)]

"And what were you dreaming?"

"Uhhh, I was eating a hot dog."

"Wow! Most of your dreams the last few weeks you sure do love eating hot dogs!"

Interesting to me because I know 1 of the artists

[tpjunkie (911544)]

Fernando Orellana was my professor for a digital art class I took in college. He was way into the computer as a tool for creating artwork, and the fusion of traditional art with the modern and bleeding edge digital techniques. Interestingly, he asked the class one day what each of us would do with an unlimited budget for an art project. No one thought to ask him what he would do but it looks like this is certainly a hint. He's a great guy and has some cool ideas, I'll have to look him up when I'm at school for alumni weekend this year.

Raises the question..

[wellingtonsteve (892855)]

of whether you are responsible for what your robot does while re-enacting your dreams...

A speculation machine?

[TripMaster Monkey (862126)]

From TFA (emphasis mine):

Periods of high activity (REM) where associated with dynamic behaviors (flying, scared, etc.) and low activity with more subtle ones (gesturing, looking around, etc.). The "behaviors" the robot demonstrates are some of the actions I might do (along with everyone else) in a dream.

"Might" do? So, if I'm experiencing high-activity REM, I might be flying...or I might be scared? There's a big difference between those two activities (well, alt least there is for me).

It sounds like Fernando Orellana and Brendan Burns have created a robot whose function is to speculate wildly on what someone might have been dreaming.

Big deal. I can do that right now, and I can do it for free.

Re:A speculation machine?

[ShatteredArm (1123533)]

It seems more like it's a meaningless representation of brain waves (or whatever) using physical actions of a robot. Until they think of a way to make the robot actually do what I'm dreaming about doing, it's not any kind of interpretation at all. It seems kinda like making a robot that interprets FM waves by dancing a little bit faster when the frequency is higher.

But honey...

[helpfulcorn (668048)]

I swear to god, I don't think your sister is more beautiful, it was just a dream.

Doesn't so much interpret dreams...

[bkaul (1235970)]

... it moves its head based on eye movements, and dances around based on EEG data. There's no actual interpretation of the content of the dream, other than that more active EEG and REM periods correspond to more activity from the robot. It wouldn't know if you were dreaming about flying, or about Eva Longoria, or about going for a jog.

Better headline:

[jwietelmann (1220240)]

Robot Observes Dreams, Does Interpretive Dance

If I dream in Code

[AuntieWillow (1188799)]

can the robot do my work for me?

Oblig:

[ArcherB (796902)]

Bender: [murmuring in his sleep] Kill all humans, kill all humans, must kill all...
Fry: Bender, wake up!
Bender: I was having the most wonderful dream. I think you were in it.

I'm reminded of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader

[greenguy (162630)]

The ship is sailing merrily along, when the sailors rescue a man floating on a piece of driftwood. He tells them he's fleeing an island where dreams come true. The sailors want to set a course for this island immediately. "Not daydreams," he tells them, "real dreams!"

The sailors quickly decide they don't want to go there after all.

"Dream Man" Not A Threat, Says Roboticist

[Jesus_666 (702802)]

World reknowned roboticist Dr. Thomas Light of Light Labs, Inc. has announced today that this dream-reenacting robot, commonly known as "Dream Man", is not a threat to the safety of the free world. "Dream Man", so Light, "is one of [Dr.] Albert [Wily]'s more stupid creations. He fits right in with Plant Man and Charge Man."
"Reverse engineering Dream Man's weapon is definitely something I look forward to. Albert's stupid ideas never fail to crack me up", added Light.

Light also announced that he will be sending the autonomous weapon of mass destruction codenamed "Mega Man" to destroy Dream Man along with seven other so called "Robot Masters", which form the latest iteration in the ongoing Light/Wily feud that has been waged since Wily's theft of several robot prototypes from Light Labs in 199X.

The United Nations Security Council has announced that it fully supports Light, even though like usual it has no idea about what's actually going on or why the world is supposed to be in danger. They do, however, support anyone who stands up to would-be world dominators, especially ones they perceive as zany.

Meanwhile, Light has drawn considerable criticism over discarding the weapon data from the last encounter with Wily's Robot Masters. During the conflicts, Light reverse-engineers the weapons used by the Robot Masters in order to provide Mega Man with additional firepower. However, as soon as Wily is defeated, the new weapons are summarily discarded in what Light's detractors see as a display of shortsightedness.

"Seriously", so Japanese Minister of Defense Shigeru Ishiba, "even though Dream Man doesn't look very threatening, he might prove difficult to defeat with just a puny plasma cannon. A few Crash bombs or a burst of Atomic Fire would probably do him in easily, but as Light insists on throwing away perfectly good weapon data Rockman [as the Japanese call Mega Man] is going to have a bit of a fight ahead of him."

Ishiba added that Japan would be happy to provide cover fire or E-tanks if needed.

Re:

[KublaiKhan (522918)]

How exactly would you propose to turn a machine that acts out measured impulses into a mind control device?

It's nothing more than a sophisticated puppet; is it likely that the puppeteer of a Punch and Judy show will start feeding people to crocodiles and bashing folks over the head with a policeman's truncheon?

Re:You mean . . . .?

[somersault (912633)]

How exactly would you propose to turn a machine that acts out measured impulses into a mind control device?

Put the batteries in the other way round.. I mean duh, it isn't exactly brain surgery.

Re:You mean . . . .?

[KublaiKhan (522918)]

No two-way communication is occurring.

The robot--if such a word is even really appropriate--has only read access. There is no input from the device to the brain--there are only sensors reading the electrical and motor impulses. There's no "determination" of where the impulses are--there are merely changes recorded by sensors which the operator places on the head that passively read the electric fields.

The device does not in any way, shape, or form 'write' to the brain at all.

This is nowhere near a 'mind meld'--if anything, it's like a video camera that records electrical activity rather than visual spectrum activity.

No Matrix bots for you. Sorry. You'll have to wait a while before you can meet Agent Smith.

Re:You mean . . . .?

[STrinity (723872)]

Worse than that:

FRY: So you're telling me they broadcast commercials into people's dreams?

LEELA: Of course.

FRY: But, how is that possible?

PROFESSOR FARNSWORTH: It's very simple. The ad gets into your brain just like this liquid gets into this egg.

        [He shows an egg and injects it with liquid from a syringe until the egg explodes.]

PROFESSOR FARNSWORTH: Although, in reality, it's not liquid, but gamma radiation.

LEELA: Didn't you have ads in the twentieth century?

FRY: Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio... and in magazines... and movies, and at ballgames, and on buses, and milk cartons, and T-shirts, and bananas, and written in the sky. But not in dreams, no sirree.

Re: You mean . . . .?

[arizwebfoot (1228544)]

And what if there is music involved?

Is the RIAA gonna sue you for infringement?

Re:You mean . . . .?

[Haeleth (414428)]

It's an interesting 5th Amendment argument that your dreams would be giving testimony against yourself. Our technology is SO far beyond what the Founding Fathers could ever dream of that we're in uncharted waters.

Um, our science fiction might be. Our technology is nowhere close to making it possible to get any detailed information at all out of your dreams. (The robot described in this article merely looks at brain activity and "creatively" translates that into "the kinds of things people do in dreams". It's totally non-specific, and its accuracy is really rather questionable as well.)

Re:You mean . . . .?

[davetd02 (212006)]

Except none of that is true. It'd be nice for defendants if it were, but the privilege against self-incrimination does not apply to physical evidence. The Supreme Court has never held there to be a self-incrimination right against giving PHYSICAL evidence -- just to forced TESTIMONY (getting up on the stand and actually describing what happened).

The 5th Amendment does NOT stop the police from forcing you to participate in a lineup.

The 5th Amendment does NOT stop the police from requesting a handwriting sample or a fingerprint.

The 5th Amendment does NOT stop the police from requesting a voice sample.

See, eg here [reason.com] ("It is long settled law that fingerprinting does not violate the Fifth Amendment's guarantee against compelled self-incrimination or the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures. Indeed, much non-testimonial evidence does not fall under those constitutional protections, including the analysis of blood and breath for alcohol. Samples of semen, hair, and other tissues may be taken without a suspect's consent.").

See also Schember v. California, where the Supreme Court reiterated that the 5th Amendment protects against compelled testimony primarily in the spoken word sense. Blood tests weren't compelled "testimony," even if they were "compelled" in the sense that they were forcible, over protests.

We can write laws that prohibit forced fingerprints, or forced handwriting samples -- call your Congressperson and tell them to do so if that's what you believe. But there's no right in the Constitution about that.

Re:Dreams are partly crisis exercises

[garett_spencley (193892)]

I completely disagree. Dream interpretation has many uses for people other than the one having the dream.

For example, they can be an excellent reason to make fun of your friends.