New and sophisticated robots are able to make a lot of people think that they are actually real live persons, due to advancements in expressing emotions, and an ever-increasing ability to actually understand what we are saying.

UK mathematician Alan Turing has designed a test that bears his name, which is aimed at finding out exactly how much robotics has advanced over the years. New ways are being developed to test how well machines can match aspects of human intelligence, including animated human faces, androids, a jazz improvization program, and military robots.

View how machines are closing in on human abilities (article with embedded video via NewScientist)

Do you ever want to know what your vis-à-vis is thinking? Or your partner? Neuroscience has learned so much about how we think and the brain activity linked to certain thoughts that it is now possible - albeit on a very basic scale - to read a person’s mind. 

It is not only what your are thinking, but also what you are hearing and dreaming.

If these technologies are used everywhere.. scary thought, don’t you think so? There is no science fiction anymore.

View the article with embedded video ( via 60 MINUTES, CBS NEWS) 

In the Spinnaker project, a computer with thousands or millions of microprocessors is to mimic and model the function of millions of nerve networks in the brain.

The Spinnaker (short for “spiking neural network architecture) system will not only help scientists better understand the complex interactions of brain cells, but it could also lead to fault-tolerant computers that, like the brain, work despite malfunctions in tiny circuits.

(via theengineer.co.uk)

Remember the story about how scientists have developed a technology for recording the images in a person’s mind (see Do You Want To Record Your Dreams?). 

Here is another story about “brain reading”: Dutch Researchers have successfully retrieved information about “who is saying what” with neuroimaging and data mining techniques. Read about how the scientists mapped the brain’s activity associated with the recognition of speech sounds and voices.

(via ScienceDaily)