Scientists believe that they are close to creating a technology that can interpret brain waves into pictures, potentially allowing us to record our thoughts and dreams and play them back on a television

New research in California, published in Nature magazine, has led scientists to claim they have taken the ‘first step’ on the path to displaying real or imagined images in the brain. It seems a long way short of realising science fiction as fact though.

Apparently, researchers can pick out with 92 per cent and 72 per cent accuracy which image a volunteer has been viewing, when they are having their brain scanned by an MRI machine.

Gallant claims

Dr Jack Gallant from the University of California in Berkeley somewhat optimistically claimed: "Our results suggest that it may soon be possible to reconstruct a picture of a person's visual experience from measurements of brain activity alone.

"Imagine a general brain-reading device that could reconstruct a picture of a person's visual experience at any moment in time."

It's a slightly worrying concept that your innermost thoughts could be plucked out of your brain for all to see. But TechRadar believes that this technology would be great for showing bad drivers exactly what you think of them.