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{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}
{{quote|''" Turn off the screen and let me project my thoughts!"''|Mike Nelson imitating a Local Yokel, [[
{{quote|''" He's thrashing around while he's having his dream, and his dream can be seen on the monitor screen!"''|MC Mothmaster Murf "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUnMF7dV86k Amazing Robocop Rap]"}}
[[Speculative Fiction]]
A cousin trope of [[Magical Security Cam]]. Compare [[Mind Probe]], where this technology is explicitly used for torture.
{{examples
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In [[Mahou Sensei Negima]], Jack Rakan has a machine that turns his memories into a film reel, so that he can go through the [[Backstory]] without having to explain everything himself.
* [[Lupin
* In [[Love Hina]], Kaolla Su builds a device so that people's dreams may be put on the television. Obviously, Keitaro suffers because of it.
* [[Trinity Blood]] had one of these at the Vatican's disposal, but it was very painful for the witness and showed only picture, not sound.
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== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[
* ''Futureworld'' (sequel to ''[[Westworld]]'') had a machine that showed the thoughts and dreams the female protagonist was having.
* Lewis's Memory Scanner in ''[[Meet the Robinsons]]''.
* ''[[WALL-E]]'': When the Captain wants to see what happened during EVE's expedition, he sticks a miniature projector on her head and watches the playback. Justified, since she is a robot.
* The chair that can monitor [[
* [[Mom and Dad Save The World]]
* The Memory Eraser from ''[[Flash Gordon (
== Literature ==
* One old short sci-fi story featured an auditory equivalent, allowing two people with electrodes hooked up to their skulls to communicate thoughts directly. IIRC, one end was designed to receive, the other to send thoughts. Several basic tests were run to make sure the thing wasn't a fluke or a placebo leading to an additional receiver being installed for confirmations. The story ends with a bit of a twist when they try hooking one receiver end up to the sending end directly in a loop. The scientist on the other receiver looks terrified and rips them apart moments afterward. Apparently, he heard the machine itself [[
* A story titled "Into the Sunset" by D.C. Poyer had the religious dictatorship that'd taken over the U.S. build a machine that could detect people's thoughts, although no display was involved. If they [[Thoughtcrime|thought unauthorized things]], the machine would '''automatically''' punish them—with a power surge that wiped the brain completely, effectively killing the victim while leaving his or her body alive. Unauthorized things, of course, included wanting liberty and justice. Then the dictatorship installed the mind reader at all entrances to government buildings....
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[That's So Raven]]'', "Vision Impossible": Raven's [[Clip Show]] er... I mean thoughts are projected onto a screen via a fancy machine.
* In ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'', John Henry, a T-888 Terminator hooked up to an advanced AI, has screens that project images related to what he's thinking about.
* There was an episode of ''[[Stingray (1985 TV series)|Stingray]]'' where King Titan interrogated Troy Tempest using such a machine, without Tempest knowing it.
* ''[[Quatermass and The Pit]]'' (TV and film versions) has a thought-visualising machine called an "optic encephalograph" that shows racial memories of Martian genocide.
* ''[[The Prisoner]]'' episode "A, B and C" involves a machine that can read Number 6's dreams and memories, but by the end of the story he is controlling the images.
* Done many times on ''[[
** Other notable examples include the first Doctor being interrogated, but because he's being flippant, the screen shows only random objects, and the second Doctor's trial in "The War Games", wherein he mounts his defense by using thought projection to show images of the great enemies he has fought, including the Cybermen, the Daleks, and... The Quarks. Since the Quarks were a one-off and markedly crap
** Another example occurs when the Second Doctor creates a mental projector with the scanner to explain to Zoey how traveling in the Tardis can be dangerous by showing her clips from "Evil of the Daleks".
* ''[[Stargate SG
* ''[[
** Again in "Back In The Red" when a machine is used to probe the crew's minds to obtain evidence in their hearing.
* ''[[
* One episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' had one of these. I kid you not.
** At least everyone else in the episode had a realistic level of skepticism. It's like only House realizes it's a TV show.
** A bit of context: The patient was having [[Captain Obvious|unexplained]] seizures and out of body experiences. After running every diagnostic they can think off, they haul out a highly experimental "brain reader." They first show the patient a series of pictures, so the machine can analyse how her brain processes pictures. Then, when they ask her to think of one particular thing, they get a very fuzzy, very basic outline of her mental image. So, it's not exactly making a 3D hologram of her thoughts, but it seems plausible, maybe [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]].
** The best part was everybody's reaction to Foreman's reasonable skepticism:
{{quote|
Everyone Else Present: YES. }}
* On ''[[I
* Used in ''[[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive]]'' to facilitate a [[Recap Episode]] / [[Clip Show]]. Handwaved in that the guy whose mind they're scanning is {{spoiler|a robot - they're just accessing his recorded video files}}.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* [[Mandrake the Magician]] frequently does this as a means of painless interrogation. He hypnotizes the target to sit still and then literally causes their memories to appear on a wall like an old fashioned movie projection.
== [[Tabletop RPG]] ==
* ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'' supplement ''Cthulhu Now'', adventure "Dreams Dark and Deadly". A dream research institute develops technology to read the dreams of sleepers, and can project them onto TV screens so others can watch them.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In [[
== Webcomics ==
* [http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF160-The_Dreamcatcher3000.gif This] ''[[The Perry Bible Fellowship]]'' comic.
* The potential use of one that can turn the victim into a mindless shell of himself is a looming threat to the cast of [https://web.archive.org/web/20101116045308/http://omega_key.comicdish.com/index.php?pageID=33 The Omega Key].
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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** In the [[The Nineties|early 90s]] tie-in book "Bart Simpson's Guide To Life", Bart's dream bedroom includes a Video Dream Recorder.
* In ''[[Aaahh Real Monsters]]'', the Gromble uses one of these to view his students' scares and grade them. The projection is done through the student's eyes, even if they're away.
* ''[[Batman:
** It sort of helped matters that he got Bruce to all but say "I'm Batman" in a therapy session, while the monitor showed a black-gloved fist clenched over the [[Bat Signal]].
* ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]]'' "Star Smasher", Zurg uses a "Mind Probe" is retrieve plans for a trash compacter from the mind of one of the kidnapped LGMs. The plans appear on a computer monitor.
* An audio version is used on [[
== Real Life ==
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[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]
[[Category:Mental Picture Projector]]
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