I have long had a dream of finding a personalized/portable EEG device that I could use and program for mind reading, dream logging, etc. Based on my research and psychological studies, I've often told people that while it might be unethical, if I could have an EEG device constantly connected to a person's head to monitor all the electrical activity they had at all times, that with enough time, testing, and computer programming help, I could essentially read every single thought & feeling that person had. I have often wondered why nobody has created such a system, because it's so obvious, and was so sure that eventually it will come out, and I'll want one for personal use.

So I just watched a video for this new game/system by Emotiv Systems that connects up a small/portable EEG (electroencephalography) device to your head which simply monitors the electrical activity in your brain and performs commands based on pre-recorded commands that you associated with their corresponding thoughts.

For example, you focus on an object on the screen, and think about making it rotate. Then you have the software associate those thoughts (electrical activity) with rotation on the screen. You think about pulling or pushing an object, and record those similarly. You can record thoughts of anger or enjoyment, etc and it remembers what that looks like from pre-recorded electrical activity.

Thus far, the demonstrations I've seen have focused on promoting this device as a gaming system where you move around and do things in the game all by using your mind. While I think this is cool, I would prefer to use it for other things, like as a dream log. It would be cool to use one of these little EEG's to link certain thoughts/brain-waves to images or symbols and then have it record everything you think while you dream.

For example, you can think about a tree repeatedly and link those brain waves to a picture/symbol of a tree. Then while you're dreaming, if there is a tree in your dream it could record that thought. Since a lot of people supposedly think about sex in their sleep, it could also be interesting to link different thoughts about sex to different symbols, words or (non-pornographic) images to see what comes up in a dream. Since words are essentially symbols of concepts, I wonder if you could simply think about a word/concept and have the machine write for you while you simply think to yourself. It could also potentially record words and log everything you say or hear in a dream. The more thoughts you register in the system, the cooler it could be for a dream log's description and detail. You could register thoughts of specific family members or friends, thoughts of common activities, places you are familiar with, feelings, and many other things and have them all logged as they occur in your dreams.

It would also be interesting to have an alternate profile where you link things in reverse. Like in those games they have, if you are supposed to imagine being MAD to scare away these little balls of light, maybe you have to do the opposite and have thoughts of love and caring and link everything oppositely. Instead of pulling the object, you have to imagine pushing it instead.

Man, if these things aren't too expensive I'll certainly buy one...imagine the fun possibilities you could have just linking thoughts to certain things like that for personal use. I could go on and on about the possibilities with this device, but this is a good start. Supposedly it may be released in a few months from now.