"Mind reading" already exists kindof sortof maybe good enough to cnet to write an article about.
This is at the top of my Christmas list: http://emotiv.com/
In fact, here is a comparison of consumer Brain Computer Interfaces: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_consumer_brain%E2...
On the technical side, it does seem to be the best current option for consumer EEG, though most of these devices are actually strongly influenced by, if not heavily reliant on, facial muscle movements.
Also there was a rather restrictive licence on the out-of-the-box software, which is not very productive for a hardware company.
(I've heard a few people make similar complaints to yours, which is really really saddening to me. Regardless I'm still going to buy one and see what I can do with it :))
the first thing I ever saw along these lines: recreating a cat's vision from brain sensors (1999)