I thought some of you might find this paper interesting, it’s a summary of current computer brain interfaces. I’m quite interested in the potential of cheap non-invasive diy applications. It can’t be too long before we find a reliable, cheap and non-invasive method of interfacing with our brains without having to wear one of those silly looking hats!

http://www.wtec.org/bci/BCI-finalreport-10Oct2007-lowres.pdf

I look forward to the day when there’s a nuigroup like community for experimenting with this stuff

There’s also an open-source software kit for doing this kind of research:

http://www.bci2000.org/BCI2000/Features.html

Recently the UK press got very excited about the next nintendo controller which they said would allow gamers to control the games with thought alone. Of course Nintendo were just speculating what might be possible in the future rather than making a statement of intent but the press went crazy for it anyway. Other companies are bringing similar products to market though;

http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/602163/ocz-brain-controller-in-mass-production.html

Would be fun to play with (even if not quite ready to replace the mouse), and combined with video goggles and some other gubbins could be used to make a sweet home brew VR system.

Thought control would surely be the ultimate interface?

OCZ Neaural Brain Actuator ?

Hey Nade… thanks great post!

I look forward to the day when there’s a nuigroup like community for experimenting with this stuff smile

Maybe this will be NUI Group… We focus on emerging input technologies after all

To be honest BCI is our (my) ultimate goal… however I do believe we need better sensing techniques.. such as computer vision and electronic field sensing to allow for proper training of the BCI… also machine learning and intelligence still must mature. Soon enough all the technologies align will allow for real amazing stuff and NUI Group will have even a larger scope of technologies to research.

Looking forward to it!

http://www.neurosky.com/menu/main/home/

We should try and build a diy version of that headset! That might be my next project anyway

The headset only costs 150 Euros according to one site, and the developers kit is free to download. I’m actually concidering getting one to try out instead of starting building anything…

I’ve always wanted to turn tiny pulses of electricity from the brain into usable control signals for electronic equipment.

This topic is Sooo Cool!

I got intrested in Multi touch because of the 3D applications that I do on the site, but with a brain interface used inconjunction would be so sweet =)

Well that’s encouraging! Looks like this could be the start of the NUI Group Brain Hacking division

My plan is this:

Step 1: Buy an Arduino
Step 2: Build some simple electrodes and sensors
Step 3: Try and get some basic eeg readings
Step 4: Make this information public and try and get others to help improve the software.

hehe

I like your plan.

Well, I guess that one site lied, here is the responce I recieved inquiring about purchasing one of there head sets…

Hi Jonathan,

NeuroSky is really a B2B business. One of the first challenges would be the signing of our mutual NDA, wherein our legal counsel requires the signature of a corporate or university entity.  We offer a develper license, which includes the software development kit, for $9,000.  The aim that a developer will eventually create and commercialize an application and bundle it with our headsets for high volume cases.  So, you are right, it might not be a good fit, but stranger things have happened.

Sincerely,

Greg Hyver

I think the hardware for these things is actually quite simple - it’s the software which is the tricky part, e.g. being able to filter out all the noise.

Defcon Presentation:
https://www.defcon.org/images/defcon-16/dc16-presentations/dc-16-ne0nra1n.pdf

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum=openeeg-list

http://www.eng.utah.edu/~jnguyen/ecg/instructions.html

real kool stuff here I saw the monkey tests at duke a while back

I looked into this a little a while back.  Here are some interresting links:

http://openeeg.sourceforge.net/doc/ ... all you need on top is some mad data mining and classification code

Also see http://www.gtec.at/content.htm (they provide a whole research system) I asked them for a price quote.  For a BCIsys system with 2 eeg caps a USB amp and the software i think they quoted me ~13.000 Euros, so its a little on the pricy side.