Brain Cam

After reading this, it looks as though we're a large step closer to creating a machine that be able to record and display our dreams, which I believe will be the ultimate consumer product. Now tell me, who's working on that?

European researchers who created an ultra-fast, extremely high-resolution video camera have enabled dozens of medical applications, including one scenario that can record ‘thought’ processes travelling along neurons. The Megaframe project scored a staggering number of breakthroughs to create the world’s first 1024 pixel, photon-resolution, million-frame-per-second CMOS (semiconductor) camera. Their work has pushed the boundaries of CMOS miniaturisation and sophistication.

The camera can detect a single photon at a million times a second, and so it can record molecular processes in unprecedented detail. For example, there's Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM), where fluorescent material is introduced to the area of interest. Fluorescence has properties like a particular spectrum of emission and rate of decay. One particular fluorophore, Oregon Green Bapta (OGB-1), decays at a rate proportionate to the presence of calcium. Interestingly (to scientists), calcium is an important indicator of neuron activity.

“So it is possible, for example, to go inside neurons and look at their ion channels. These are the channels that allow neurons to communicate with other neurons. And you can basically see the amount of calcium that is present. You can probe optically how neurons communicate with other neurons just by looking at the concentrations of calcium in real time." That is an actual quote from a scientist.

Scientists can use the OGB-1 to indicate the presence and concentration of calcium, and the whole process can be recorded in ultra-fine detail thanks to single-photon detectors, such as the ones present in the Megaframe camera. Basically, the camera is recording at the speed of thought! Megaframe could have a significant impact on any medical science that uses visible light emissive scanning technologies like FLIM. But it can even have an impact where visible light is not present…and that dream camera idea is lookin' mighty good!