Re: Fw: Intro to natural language processing

[Randall R Schulz <rschulz@sonic.net>]

Jack,

On Saturday 25 December 2004 21:40, Jack Ring wrote:
> Rich may be more right than wrong.
>
> Given that researchers at UCLA in 1980 were able to discern the
> differences in EEG (brain waves) when a subject thought STOP, START,
> LEFT, RIGHT and a few more and given that technology has advanced
> during the intervening sun spot cycle (22 years) then I suspect EEG's
> can be used today to note when a subject reads words and phrases that
> are more pertinent to him/her than are others, thus begin to organize
> a personal ontology.  Any takers?

There are some that claim that EEG pattern analysis make it possible to
distinguish when a person is recognizing a visual image or display that
they have seen before and when they're seeing something for the first
time. One person has developed this concept into technology that he
claims can be used to good effect in criminal investigation. Naturally,
it has yet to be accepted as evidence in criminal investigations and in
courts of law. This technique is referred to variously as
"brainprinting" or "brain fingerprinting."

Here's an article from the BBC:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3495433.stm>.

Personally, I've highly skeptical that the very crude signals that reach
the surface of the scalp can disclose such refined information about
cognitive states such as visual recognition.


Randall Schulz