Have you ever seen that movie "Total Recall" either with Arnold Shwarzenegger or Colin Farrell?
It's mainly about a clinic that can implant dreams into your mind so that you can experience a mental adventure about as real as if it really happened. (I still like the first movie more but the graphics and the babes in the second one are total eye candy)

Ok enough about the movies, let's get stuck in science, and like all scientific research, I always question where is this going and who is doing this research?

The answer, Riken-M.I.T. Center for Neural Circuit Genetics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is doing the research to make people realize even more than before how unreliable human memory is.
(or make people realize their new 'altered' reality after the brain-machine is done)

If you haven't heard of "Optogenetics" it's basically using light to stimulate cells, in this case brain cells.

6 steps of Optogenetics:

I can see how this may cause some fascination for those sci-fi fan boys and concern for those conspiracy theorists fearing 'big brother' will continue to gain control, of our minds.

I'm sure in time this technology will become so advanced that there will be no need to tap into our brains directly because they have found a way to implant false memories through our eyes...