In most science fiction stories, it is possible to slap a helmet with electrodes on the head of a perpetrator and gain full knowledge about his memories and thoughts. While it may not be quite the futuristic crime buster, the computer interface developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is picking up words that you say in your head.

The electrodes in the device pick up neuro muscular signals in the jaw and face that are triggered by internal verbalization. These are not spoken out aloud, but the words are picked up and transcribed by the software. Arnav Kapur is a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab, and he led the development of the new system. Kapur said that the motivation for this was to build an IA (intelligence augmentation) device was to have a computing platform that’s more internal, that melds human and machine in some ways and that feels like an internal extension of our own cognition.

The idea of internal verbalization, also known as subvocalization, is not a new one. It was extensively put through scientific research in the 1950s. Now the research team at MIT is bringing the words within to the screen up front by using a simple prototype which has four electrodes and can be worn on a jaw.