Ever get into an argument with a loved one because you couldn’t just read their minds? Well, apparently a group of Researchers at Universiteit Maastricht’s Faculty of Psychology & Neuroscience Department of Neurocognition have had enough because they have invented a system that translates thoughts into letters.

All humor aside, this really is an incredible breakthrough for any type of handicap, from serious motor impairment to debilitating speech. The system has been in real-world testing and is an extraordinary success. The patients are set-up to looks at a screen of the alphabet, thinking about each letter for a period of time, then they should be able to think-type in real time. While it is not near the speed of actual typing, it is the only program of it’s kind and can only get better.

For other real-world applications, there are some journalistic elements to this technology as well. For example, plenty of people have the tendency to think faster than they can type and start skipping words as they try to catch up to that thought process. Or, for reporters covering a press conference or an unveiling of a new technological wonder, the sound of typing on a physical keyboard can sometimes be deafening in mass; if reporter could just think-write their articles in real-time, the event could be much more enjoyable for everybody.

As with all new breakthroughs, the attention will be placed on how to speed up the processes and make it available to all others who need it; it will be exciting to see how it all works out.