Want to control things with your mind? The Emotiv EPOCH EEG is one of the best pieces of hardware you can get that is ready to be hacked into your project. Too bad the entry-level SDK will set you back $500. Or you can take advantage of [Cody Brocious'] work by using his Emotiv Python Library. He sniffed around the data coming in over the USB connection and discovered that it’s encrypted. With a bit of trickery he extracted the key and built the 128-aes decryption routine into his package. So far this just pulls raw data from the unit so it’s up to you to figure out how to properly filter the signals and differentiate which sensor corresponds to each data stream. But it’s a start, and hopefully it’ll lead to more mind controlled doo-dads.
While browsing through flicker this morning, we spotted this interesting image. Two radio controlled cars hooked to Arduinos. What was going on? What is [knolleary] doing with them? We couldn’t find any information so we clicked through to his personal site. What we found was a quite interesting story about how he set up a race between two taxi cabs being controlled by the Emotiv headsets for the BBC. Yeah, forget driving a Rovio around with your mind. We’re still a bit curious about the two bumper cars in the picture. We can see that his tests were done on a blue radio controlled mini, so what are the bumper cars for? Did any of you catch this on the air? How well did the taxis drive? Was he using the facial expressions or the concentration?
[Robert] at Extremetech was going to write a review of the Emotiv EEG headset but found the bundled software lacking. He decided to write something to really show off what could be done with an EEG in your home. He is now controlling his Rovio with his mind. He had already written a new control program for the Rovio, so redoing the same program with the EEG controls would give him a great comparison. If you recall from the mind controlled TV, meditating on a single thought can be cumbersome for quick controls. Instead, he used facial expression recognition. Maybe this should be called “face controlled Rovio” instead.
Finally, a good use for those EEG headsets. [Andrew] has set up a system that will turn his TV on and off if he focuses hard enough. He’s got the software set to trigger an IR LED when the “strength” gets high enough. When the action starts, around 4:30 in the video, you can see that when he raises his arm the meter on the screen begins to raise and the TV turns on. Though not immediately useful, we can’t help but get a little excited seeing him literally turn his TV on with a thought.
If you’re a fan of biometrics this game is for you. It uses a homemade EEG to facilitate simple control. This is along the same lines as the Force Trainer hacks but this homebrew hardware is fun to look at. The success of the project can be seen in the video of a simple game they developed.
RF Camera Remote
[Jonny] wanted to trigger his Nikon camera remotely but was unhappy with the functionality of the IR remote. He hacked together an RF remote and receiver that still uses the IR functionality of the camera, but allows for the geographic freedom of Radio Frequency. Not as advanced as some we’ve seen but it meets his specifications.
CNC Mill
[Jan] tipped us off about a CNC mill that her friend made. The machine turned out beautifully even though very few tools were used to produce it. We love to pour over these builds so if you’ve done one, document it and send it in.
Neutering the On Demand Button
[Dan] hated his Comcast remote because the On Demand button could be hit by mistake. This was usually when trying to unpause live TV. The remainder of the show couldn’t be viewed just because the On Demand menu launched. Simplicity is king. He fixed this by placing two small paper rolls between the button and the circuit board. This way the button can still be used but only if you press pretty hard.
Just in time for the influx of sedentary Oprah viewers, [Adam Wilson] built a brain interface that allows you to post Twitter messages. The electrode cap monitors the user’s brain functions to determine where they’re looking. The display slowly flashes each letter in the alphabet. The user focuses on the letter they want and when it flashes the cap can pick up the resulting impulse. It’s a long process and the average user can only do ten characters a minute i.e. 14 minutes to use all 140 characters in a Twitter post. It’s interesting research and shows how far we still need to go with neural interfaces. The researchers note that Twitter’s forced brevity levels the playing field between locked-in patients and normal users. A video of the device in use is available on the NITRO blog.
Brain activity is measured using passive or active electrodes. Passive electrodes require a conductive paste to make proper contact with the skin (examples: 1, 2). Active EEG sensors don’t need conductive goop because they have an amplifier directly on the electrode (examples: 1, 2, 3).
