Comments on: MindFlex teardown

By: Herbert Ragin

Herbert Ragin — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 20:00:06 +0000

Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your post seem to be running off the screen in Opera. I’m not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to do with browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know. The style and design look great though! Hope you get the problem resolved soon. Cheers

By: Winterwolf

Winterwolf — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 06:24:22 +0000

I actually bought this game about 3 days ago from Wal-Mart for $70, and I have to say that it works exactly how Matel says it does, which impressed me a lot. The headset starts to get uncomfortable after a while with the metal sensor that must be placed above your left eye, but its something I have gotten used to. I would have to say that I don’t believe it relies on any facial expressions, or any kind of blood pressure measurement. It took me about 5 minutes to really get the hang of it. I laid down in the floor with the headset on and the game in front of me. I turned on the system and selected the freestyle option. I relaxed while trying to clear my head and the ball dropped as the fan completely stopped. The moment I started concentrating, the fan turned on, and the harder I concentrated the higher the ball went up. Then once I started thinking about something else to take my mind off of the ball, it stopped again. I repeated this over and over. I have even tried this with my eyes open and closed, and still got the same result. With everything I tried, the only thing I could not rule out, was the fact that it “truly was” reading my brainwave activity. Some people say that it has a pre-programed routine, which isn’t true, because I tried clearing my head for almost 2 minutes, and it stayed still. It always responded as soon as I “randomly” concentrated, with almost pin point accuracy. So either I have telekinesis, (Which is very doubtful) Or the game actually does measures your brainwave activity with a true EEG headset, (Technology that has been around for a while) which is probably the most accurate statement. This game is not a fake nor a gimmick. (And no I don’t work for the company.) I just think that all of those who can’t believe something like this can truly do what it says, are the same ones who won’t accept that technology has truly advanced this far to make things like this possible. Heck, being in the military, I have seen cutting edge technology not available, nor known to the public as of today, that I didn’t even think was possible, until I saw it with my own eyes, and knew and understood the science behind it.

By: Roman Dulgarov

Roman Dulgarov — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:25:28 +0000

@ Tux-fan …. LOL @ PovRay reference. :) That reminds me of my very first hardware upgrade back in 90′s. I had a 386SX, remember buying a co-processor from wal-mart of all places.

By: nanoman

nanoman — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 10:50:02 +0000

Hi I read the comment and they reminded me of a brain cap. I came up with that uses pic’s it is made up of two 48pin pic’s & one 24pin bluetooth pic each pic’s has 20 electrodes. I got the idea from two books bionics for the evil genius and 123 pic microcotroller experiments for the evil genius. ever seen lawnmower man or the matrix

By: Tane

Tane — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:45:29 +0000

I must admit, I’ve always thought that “mind control” would be far easier done by deliberately *targeting* scalp muscles. So it’s scalp control, rather than mind control, but you let the brain handle the mapping between scalp muscles and commands. Think of the BrainGate tongue vision thingy but in reverse.

By: walt

walt — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:29:48 +0000

@will you’re totally wrong. it’s not pressure sensors at all. where did you get that idea?

By: manu

manu — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:58:12 +0000

I have one mindflex toy and I was impressed on how it works- so I have started one short documentation on the product:
- the microprocessor on the input electrodes PCB (which is on the head set) in one powerful ASIC with a lot of specific software inside ( NeuroSky TGAT1-L64); it can deliver lot of informations, not only the “state of signal” (poor _signal) , “attention” and “meditation level” used in this game-toy but also the alpha, beta, delta and theta waves level obtained with a FFT transform from the input forehead signal (the active electrode point is Fp1, and the ears refereces A1 and A2- http://www.bem.fi/book/13/13.htm); the output of this input electrodes PCB are 4 pins having the notations (T,R, V, and un-noted one) very probable Tx, Rx, Vcc, ad GND (i have not verified yet); the documentations on the “developer tools” (http://www.neurosky.com/mindset/devtools.html) is very useful to understand how the serial data_row is structured;
- on the main PCB (on the head set also) there is also one interface from serial to bluetooth RF module ; in this side the serial data are prepared for wireless protocol – I believe that is a specific protocol for this toy and cannot be intercept with a standard bluetooth protocol – not very ease maybe..:)
- the wireless communication of the mindflex is the “2.4GHz RF module” made by ELAN microelectronics http://www.emc.com.tw/chs/ap07_01_01_02_gp.asp

By: malachid

malachid — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:10:00 +0000

@googfan: I don’t have one yet (I have the Epoc instead) but NeuroSky does list an API:
http://www.neurosky.com/mindset/devtools.html

By: Peter G.

Peter G. — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:22:17 +0000

If anyone takes the time to do a bit of reading on Neurofeedback (the technology by which this game functions), you’ll find that the current practices lean towards SMR and Alpha protocols. For those without knowledge of what this means, there are various frequencies when it comes to your “brainwaves”, ranging from delta associated with sleep, to beta and high beta associated with normal every day concentration and anxious concentration respectively. Now, the current practice leans towards SMR or Alpha because SMR is associated with a relaxed kind of intense concentration, while alpha is generally more relaxed. It’s much more complex then this, employing databases to see variations in your brain and that of others, and if you care you can wiki it :).

By: wil

wil — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:41:32 +0000

Actually after taking a closer look it appears to use pressure sensors in the head band and ear clips. As you concentrate your face tightens and when you dont concentrate your face relaxes. try it with your fingers it works easier. Just tense and relax your hand.

By: John Tyler

John Tyler — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:09:34 +0000

It’s a cool game but always out of stock.

I just wanted to share a website that I found that will alert me the instant Mindflex is back in stock at Amazon. You can use it for any item at Amazon for that matter. It checks Amazon every few seconds automatically and alerts you the moment your product is back in stock.

Here is the link (the item # is for Mindflex).

http://az-grabber.net/?item=B001UEUHCG

You can also just go to http://az-grabber.net and search for items.

By: austin

austin — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:08:21 +0000

i tried one of these out at pax, it actually worked pretty well. it was controlled by the amount of brain activity. to make the ball go down you had to relax and clear your head, then when you want it to go up, you start doing some simple math or anything that excites you. it sure was hard with all the booth babes in the area though. you feel kinda silly with those things clipped to your ears.

in the end, its really hard to control and i cant imagine it being to accurate. and i don’t think it would work for multiple actions, might work well for a mind controlled dimmer switch though.

i suspect this thing is only measuring blood flow to the brain, but i really don’t know. i just don’t see any other reason to clamp it to your ear lobes.

By: venetian

venetian — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:38:28 +0000

another site killed by hackaday

http://www.bigmech.com/misc/mindflex/

By: concino

concino — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:16:07 +0000

I think this is much better:
The Journey to Wild Divine
http://www.wilddivine.com/

By: wolfy02

wolfy02 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:13:40 +0000

I’ve got to agree with tux-fan. To pin-point with such accuracy would be insanely hard, not to mention the other technological hoops we would have to jump through first. But this is most definitely the first step in the right direction.