Researchers of the UCL, the University College of London, have completed a brain-scanning experiment using a functional Magnetic Resonance Imager (fMRI). It's now fashion: remember the hand controlled by the thought.

But this time, the subjects are men and women who must take a decision. The brain locked up in the MRI scan, they are presented with a series of slot machines that paid out different amounts of money: they have to find the best one.

Analyzing the operation of the brain during this stage, the scientists of the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience unit intend to discover what allows us to make a decision, and to adapt this routine into an algorithm.

"If we can understand how people solve problems using past experience, we can design better decision-making machine algorithms that could be used in something like an autonomous robot..."
Nathaniel Daw says. He's the big boss.
But he's cracking up when he adds "or in perfecting systems such as those used by Amazon.com to price books with." Maybe he has a cousin who works for Amazon, we don't know.

Anyway, another lab, the Accenture Technology Lab, develops in parallel a system of camera-monitoring based on this technology. While a computer can treat a lot of data without being able to interpret and make true decisions, a human being can treat only a few data at the same time but more intelligently. The system of Accenture should be able to detect anomalies and to inform a guard if necessary.