# First human brain linked to the internet in real time. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 27, 2017, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-human-brain-linked-to-the-internet-in-real-time/797444 "2017-09-27T18:01:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AlmostDumb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@AlmostDumb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlmostDumb)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2017, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-human-brain-linked-to-the-internet-in-real-time/797444/1 "2017-09-27T18:01:49Z")
It may sound pompous, and I totally got lost in my imagination with this. The Wits biomedical engineers have connected a human brain to the internet. Long story short, it streams brainwaves to the web, by converting the brain into an Internet of Things (IoT) node on the World Wide Web. ( more, here: [insaneclopedia](http://insaneclopedia.com/1468/brainternet-project-first-human-brain-linked-internet-real-time/) ) In another article on TheMindLab the engineers are quoted on something even better: > [@](#): > > We created our own genuine facial emotional expression database for use in the study\*\*. Participants viewed these stimuli while their EEG was measured. Then a classifier recognised which EEG features (power and coherence) corresponded to positive and negative emotions in each individual. We randomly selected 70% of each individual’s data from the positive and negative conditions, respectively, for each stimulus type. A pattern recognition algorithm learned how to classify the data into two separate categories (positive and negative). We then used the other 30% of the data to attempt to predict whether the participant was viewing or listening to positive or negative stimuli. The result is the percentage accuracy of this prediction. EEG power alone had very poor predictive power, hardly better than chance. In contrast, power and coherence together had excellent predictive power. The stimuli that produced the most accurate predictions were pure tones (95% accuracy); and the stimuli that produced the least accurate predictions were emotional images. This is unsurprising as tones are pure and unimpeded by ‘noise’, while images are varied in their content. The music was also highly predictive (93%); followed by the emotional faces (92%), the mood induction statements (91%) and finally the short video clips of emotional faces (87%). > > Although this was a pilot study with a very small sample, this study showed that EEG pattern recognition is a promising method for measuring individuals’ emotional responses to visual and auditory stimuli. Its accuracy depends on the validity of the trained algorithms and its capability to perform on new datasets. Further research will focus on whether this powerful method can be used to accurately predict how people feel towards images and videos of products, people, brands and concepts. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2017, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-human-brain-linked-to-the-internet-in-real-time/797444/2 "2017-09-27T19:08:59Z")
More of a random share than a debate. Moved from Great Debates to MPSIMS. [/moderating] ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2017, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-human-brain-linked-to-the-internet-in-real-time/797444/3 "2017-09-27T19:45:35Z")
> [@AlmostDumb](#): > > It may sound pompous, and I totally got lost in my imagination with this. The Wits biomedical engineers have connected a human brain to the internet. Long story short, it streams brainwaves to the web, by converting the brain into an Internet of Things (IoT) node on the World Wide Web. ( more, here: [insaneclopedia](http://insaneclopedia.com/1468/brainternet-project-first-human-brain-linked-internet-real-time/) ) Eh, no big deal. It’s basically the equivalent of an app that sends biometric data to the cloud for computation; the only new aspect is that it’s EEG data rather than heart rate or something. So far they don’t seem to be doing much with the gizmo aside from some basic biofeedback. > [@AlmostDumb](#): > > In another article on TheMindLab the engineers are quoted on something even better: Here’s the paper: [Classifying Different Emotional States by Means of EEG-Based Functional Connectivity Patterns](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0095415). They’re trying to tell whether the subject is feeling “neutral, positive, or negative” emotional states from EEG recordings. Their big finding: “The results indicated that the classification rate was better than chance.” Many experiments like this have been done before, and will be done again. We’re far, far away from being able to tell what people are thinking by sticking electrodes onto their skull, if that’s what you’re wondering about. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-human-brain-linked-to-the-internet-in-real-time/797444/4 "2017-09-27T20:53:25Z")
> [@JR\_Brown](#): > > Eh, no big deal. It’s basically the equivalent of an app that sends biometric data to the cloud for computation; the only new aspect is that it’s EEG data rather than heart rate or something. So far they don’t seem to be doing much with the gizmo aside from some basic biofeedback. ^This, which is wholly different than “linking” a brain to the web.