The device that eavesdrops on the voices in your head: Mind-reaching machine could soon turn your secret thoughts into speech, by Ellie Zolfagharifard.

A mind-reaching machine that can translate thoughts into speech is coming closer to reality.

The research has been ongoing for several years, and recently, scientists successfully managed to playback a word that someone is thinking by monitoring their brain activity.

While there remains a long way to go, they say this could help victims of stroke and others with speech paralysis to communicate with their loved ones. …

Using electrodes placed on the surface of the language areas of the brain of awake patients, they monitored the pattern of electrical responses of brain cells during perceived speech. The scientists then created a computer model that could match spoken sounds to these signals. ‘We recorded electrical signals directly from the human language areas when a person heard words,’ Knight explained. ‘We then decoded these electrical signals and were able to turn them into sound files that reflected what the person heard, with remarkable accuracy.’

The state could use this to further erode privacy and eradicate thought-crime (aka political incorrectness). It might replace torture with a tricky game of twenty questions.