Can you read my mind? Technology that reads our thoughts and emotions

During last week’s tech segment, we explored military technology that’s being developed for use in the near future and the far-off future. Among the inventions that had a lot of us on the edge of our seats was the telepathic helmet, which will eventually make it possible for soldiers in the field to communicate without making a sound, as well as think more cohesively as a unit.

Of course, this kind of technology makes a lot of us afraid that the government and regular folks will eventually be able to read our minds. But Brad Allenby – Chair of the Consortium on Emerging Technology, Military Operations, and National security – assured us that that day is a long ways off.

Today’s guests, however, say that, when it comes to machines reading our minds and emotions, the future is now.

Gary Small is the director of the UCLA Center on Aging and author of “iBrain” He specializes in science and technology that melds mind and machine.

And Rosalind Picard is the Director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab and author of “Affective Computing.” She specializes in developing technologies that recognize human emotions.