Any information on homebrew “brain wave” sensors? It would be interesting to check out the different signals you can get just from the surface of the head and perhaps mimic the intended functionality of the commercial device.

I feel a project coming on.

Posted at 11:35 am on Sep 18th, 2008 by daphreak

Agreed w/ #1: sounds like the gist of the post is that the interesting part is not the controller/logic, but rather the sensors. Where’s the details on those?

Posted at 1:11 pm on Sep 18th, 2008 by Coderer

anyone figure out if this thing actually works, and if so how well? I was looking at buying one of these things. it probably cold be hacked to run one of those usb missile launchers too, that would be a cool project.

Posted at 3:32 pm on Sep 18th, 2008 by Apollyon

hah son of a bitch, I KNEW someone would do this sooner or later. Luckily I posted mine a few days ago (includes a basic schematic):

http://genmay.com/showthread.php?t=798717

He did get some more information than me in certain areas, but he’s also made a few minor mistakes.

As for the PIC, it can be read (the header is standard pinout), but with a programmer only the bootloader section is visible. It of course can be erased/programmed, but then you lose the original firmware (which I am working on getting). I’ll post more info when I get home.

Posted at 4:58 pm on Sep 18th, 2008 by jproach

Coderer: They are more like conductive electrodes than “brain wave sensors” (even though everyone seems to call them that). They allow the controller box to read the biopotentials across the forehead.

The cool thing about them is that they are “dry”, ie do not require conductive gel (like the original brainfingers device). This is one thing I’m not too sure about, I know they are carbon, but are most likely not nanotube based.

If you wanted to do something similar, you can either buy disposable or reusable ECG electrodes + gel. The first ones should be easy to acquire if you know anyone who works at a hospital.

Also, check this particular patent: http://www.google.com/patents?id=SDgpAAAAEBAJ. The Citations and Referenced By links should keep you busy for hours.

Posted at 5:59 pm on Sep 18th, 2008 by jproach

I can’t wait to see what kinds of hacks people come out with for the Neurosky headset. I’s only $20-50 so it should probably have a lot more then OCZ.

I might even get the Emotiv headset if it’s reviewed well, and comes out before Neurosky’s

Posted at 6:02 pm on Sep 18th, 2008 by Dingus

I have been entertaining the idea of coupling EEG with binaural audio generation for ‘guided’ meditation for some time now.

20-50$? I am so on that toy. Not to mention the other practical applications of a mature technology, I wonder what the limits would be (600wpm typing?)… Would be nice to one day be able to take conceptual models, systems and visualizations straight from the brain onto a computer, so nice.

Posted at 8:50 pm on Sep 18th, 2008 by Ash

openEEG is a project for hobbyist to make their own EEG readers. It is on my to-do-list-xhen-I-get-a-bit-of-freetime

Posted at 1:19 am on Sep 19th, 2008 by Iv

how do these ‘headsets’ compare to professional / home-brew ( http://openeeg.sourceforge.net/doc/ ) devices?

Ive always wanted to build a biofeedback EEG device and try to use it to do controlled biofeedback meditation.

Posted at 1:43 am on Sep 19th, 2008 by SidusNare

thanks for the link sidusnare! it seems someone beat me to it.

without delving into the esoteric (and brevity) I would really like to see a revolution occur in how we understand the link between mind and body. I understand that medical professionals have been stifled on the subject when dealing with phenomena far outside the accepted respective paradigms. individuals however could build methods and perhaps repeatable observations without fear of being stonewalled and ostracized.

IMO: “Miracles happen not in opposition to nature, but in opposition to what we know of it.”

Posted at 11:45 am on Sep 22nd, 2008 by ash

You want first impressions? I’ve been using it for about an hour and a half now. I am so jazzed! Once you’re set up, it lets you parctice with a game of Pong. For the first 5 minutes I was just staring at a dead paddle, watching the ball pass by. I found that by squinting I could make the paddle jerk. Slowly it started getting easier and after about an hour I won my first (easy level) game of Pong! I’m way too excited about it when you consider the actual accomplishment involved, but there is something about seeing the computer respond to what you’re thinking that is so exciting! The motion is still very jerky, but I’m not squinting anymore to make it work. It just responds.

All in all, the sensors are pretty comfortable. I was expecting the problems with interference that others have mentioned, but I had no problems with it. Which is good. Their suggestion is to keep the box away from wall warts (yeah, right; my place is infested with ‘em).

I’ve got the “Brainfingers” screen going and am watching Alpha and Beta ranges going up and down, seemingly at random (who would have thought there would be so much going on in my head).

I can see where this is going to take time to become profecient with but seriously, this is one of the coolest toys I’ve ever played with!

Posted at 10:25 pm on Oct 3rd, 2008 by Michael

memory and encoding related multifaceted electroencephalographic response = MERMER
P300
brain finger printing

These are all interesting aplications of this hardware and other open hardware like the modular eeg or the PCEEG made from the arduino and boarduino with a optical and dc isolation.

Posted at 6:15 am on Oct 7th, 2008 by josheeg