{"id":103051,"date":"2018-02-27T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T14:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techvibes.com\/?p=103051"},"modified":"2021-07-22T17:16:02","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T21:16:02","slug":"toronto-researchers-unveil-new-method-to-digitally-reconstruct-images-from-memory","status":"publish","type":"magazine","link":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/magazine\/toronto-researchers-unveil-new-method-to-digitally-reconstruct-images-from-memory","title":{"rendered":"New Research Can Digitally Reconstruct Images from Memory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes it can be tough to remember a person\u2019s face\u2014don\u2019t worry though, a computer\u2019s got your back.<\/p>\n

Researchers from the University of Toronto Scarborough have found a way to digitally reconstruct images seen by test subjects, all based on electroencephalography (EEG) data. The technique was developed by Dan Nemrodov who is a part of Adrian Nestor\u2019s visual recognition lab.<\/p>\n

For the study and the subsequent findings, subjects were hooked up to EEG equipment that rests on a person’s head and then shown pictures of faces. After seeing the faces, the subject\u2019s brain activity was recorded and then used to digitally recreate the image in the subject\u2019s mind using a special method based on machine learning and AI algorithms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we see something, our brain creates a mental percept, which is essentially a mental impression of that thing,\u201d explained Nemrodov. \u201cWe were able to capture this percept using EEG to get a direct illustration of what\u2019s happening in the brain during this process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s really exciting is that we\u2019re not reconstructing squares and triangles but actual images of a person\u2019s face, and that involves a lot of fine-grained visual detail,\u201d said Nestor.<\/p>\n

The research was published in the journal eNeuro<\/a><\/em> and proves that EEG is capable for this kind of image reconstruction. The image below details how close a reconstructed image was to its target, as compared to any other face or stimulus with the same expression. The faces on the left are a neutral expression; on the right are happy faces.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

This process is called neuroimaging and was pioneered by the lab\u2019s leader, Nestor. He had recreated facial images before using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), but this is the first time it is done using EEG. EEG is also much more precise in terms of how an image develops.<\/p>\n

\u201cfMRI captures activity at the time scale of seconds, but EEG captures activity at the millisecond scale,\u201d said Nemrodov. \u201cSo we can see with very fine detail how the percept of a face develops in our brain using EEG.\u201d<\/p>\n

fMRI information typically provides finer details, but EEG is considerably more common, portable and inexpensive. In fact, Interaxon, a well-known and successful Toronto tech company<\/a>, uses EEG brain-sensing tech on their wellness wearable Muse.<\/p>\n

The special software that recognizes and draws the faces relies on neural networks that are trained to recognize patterns in information. In this case, it was a massive database of face pictures. Once that software could recognize the characteristics of a human face, it was then trained to associate those traits and associate them with specific EEG brain activity patterns. The sensors picked up those patterns then spouted them out as an image.<\/p>\n