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(via boingboing) New Scientist News - Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix:

Sony has patented a theoretical technique of using ultrasound to influence and manipulate nerve impulses in the brain.
"IMAGINE movies and computer games in which you get to smell, taste and perhaps even feel things. That's the tantalising prospect raised by a patent on a device for transmitting sensory data directly into the human brain - granted to none other than the entertainment giant Sony.

The technique suggested in the patent is entirely non-invasive. It describes a device that fires pulses of ultrasound at the head to modify firing patterns in targeted parts of the brain, creating 'sensory experiences' ranging from moving images to tastes and sounds. This could give blind or deaf people the chance to see or hear, the patent claims."
Here's U.S. patent 6,536,440 itself, which describes the theoretical "non-invasive system and process for projecting sensory data onto the human neural cortex."