Brain Computer Interface

/tmp/bci (aka Neurohack)

Project involving hardware and software in 3 different major fields : Science / Art / Computer Interface
Currently 3 hardware and 2 software main directions are followed.

WHAT WE DO

SCIENCE

• Education : Already 2 (in Paris) and 1 (in London) Workshop "ON/OFF", talked about basic functional brain, bci concepts and offered hands on possibilities.
• Neurosciences : Create dedicated software for brain functionnal imaging : near infra red spectroscopy and EEG with automatic recording and machine learning.
• Neurosciences : Design and run experiences with a built in paradigm manager with speech synthesis.
• Large sets of brain generated data are available in CSV file format, be creative !
• For more information on machine learning see the subproject page: /tmp/bci/machine-learning.

Current steps are : Experimental protocols and results statistic analysis to stronger assess different hardware reliability. We need some of your brain computing time to increase our test population. See contact below to Participate !

For more references (scientific bibliography) : see the /tmp/bci/starterkit.

ART

Neurohack, as Digital arts - music / video live rendering, human performance of the brain activity - has been done in different venues :

• DialogueS, EEG project on December 17 2010.
• Fete01 on May 7 2011 for Labomedia Orleans.
• MindProcessing for Macval (Museum of contemporary art de Vitry/seine) on May 22 2011.
• Workshops at Macval on July 3 2011.

BRAIN COMPUTER INTERFACE APPLICATIONS

• Computer, robots,... command.
• Help disable people.
• BYOU : Bring Your Own Use : we love collaborative work, tell us your ideas !

SOFTWARE

Jackson : Hub for brainwaves

The home-brewed EEG/FNIRS software is made in Rebol and called "Jackson". Several versions have been created for dedicated purposes, like jprocessing or jLIVE, a sequencer style live tool, available from 1 to zillion brains, for art performance, cooperative "construction" (graphics, sound, music, MIDI, DMX light control, command,...). The Rebol option was chosen for dead simple portability and to interface seamlessly local and Internet connexions.
Currently supported hardware is the Mindset.

For more about Jackson : /tmp/bci/jackson.

Brainwave sounds

OpenEEG systems with Pure Data software.

tcpOSC

Rebol has no OSC implementation so I wrote a dead simple tcp to OSC relay in python.

The repository for all tmpbci software is tmpbci on github

HARDWARE

Commercial ready-to-use BCI-kits

Real brainwaves centered current affordable commercial offers are either too simple (Mindset : ONE dry sensor) or required complex setup (Emotiv: several WET sensors).

NeuroSky Mindset

• Single EEG dry sensor headset with audio
• Ability to sample at 512Hz and access the raw signal or filtered FFT transform every second (waves: alpha, beta, delta, ...)
• BSD license Python SDK that works under linux with serial access mapped to the bluetooth device: https://github.com/groner/pythinkgear
• Software for OSX and windows also available by headset manufacturer : Neurosky

EMOTIV : todo

DIY EEG headset

• 2 OpenEEG sets were built (2 wet electrodes each).
• Continuous raw data feed only that must be filtered and analyzed.

DIY Near Infra Red Spectroscopy headset

• Designing a new acquisition device (efficient, easy to wear, affordable) using Near Infra Red Spectroscopy.
• Prelimanary tests were done with a light fiber and spectrometer.
• Joint developement with Editions Volumique

WHAT NEXT ?

• Improve OpenEEG solution by signal analysis.
• Improve control by implementing Machine Learning.
• Develop artistic collaboration i.e music composition and wide public use.
• Continue bootstrapping people that need some experience in our knowledge area.

To join us or for questions, welcomed comments, ideas : tmpbci at gmail dot com
Neurohack meetings are following /tmp/lab meetings, every thursday 9pm+ at La gaite lyrique, Paris
Last wiki update : August 2011