My OpenBCI Brainwave Reader

I'm going to talk some about the OpenBCI EEG I recently bought. First I'll address what an EEG really is for those of you with no preconception. Then I'll compare it to the other options currently on the market, and demonstrate some of OpenBCI's cool projects and features.

So an electroencephalograph (EEG) uses electrodes attached to the head to measure electromagnetic pulses generated by firing neurons. The electrodes are only on the scalp so they aren't accurate enough to measure individual neuron activations. Instead, they measure regional neuron spiking, meaning the sum of a collection of neurons firing in unity. This is exciting in its own right. EEGs extract brain data that can explain large scale cognition such as thoughts, conscious states like sleeping versus wakefulness, and even diagnose disorders like epilepsy.

OpenBCI started as a wildly successful Kickstarter (a link to that) and has become a steadily growing startup. Their mission statement is to create an open source EEG. This means that all the designs to the board and to the software are free game for anyone that wants to inspect, modify, or contribute to the project. It's exciting because every single aspect of their product is open source! So I can rewrite the firmware to the board or write my own add ons if I want. Or I can modify their headset design before 3D printing it to better fit my needs. To me, that's a pretty surprising and progressive model for a business to take.

That's what really differs it from other projects in its industry, like Emotiv. Emotiv is releasing closed source EEGs and software. Meaning their EEG and software comes as is and can't be tampered with. I can use their product as is, but any creative ideas I want to implement must remain within the constraints of the parameters they've set. In my eyes that's not ideal for the blossoming field of consumer EEGs.

There are other consumer EEG startups out there, but from what I've seen, they're all highly specialized and closed source. There's Melon and NeuroSky,  which are user friendly on the go EEG with functionality to track daily progress. Then there are just tons of EEG ideas for sleep, audio, health and more that are currently in the crowd source funding stage.

It's exciting being part of the OpenBCI movement. The forums and community are just being established. Headset, software and board designs are still being developed and updated in conjunction with consumer use. In fact, right now I'm holding my breath waiting for the new headset design to be finished. When it is, I'll print it on my school's 3D printer and have a much faster set up placing the electrodes on my head. Right now I'm either using a headband and some tape or a generic 3D printed piece to hold them on.

Introduction

I guess tonight is as good of time as any to start off this blog. I've been wanting to start this for maybe two years now, but it used to just be a dream of mine. The purpose of this blog is to, you guessed it, explore my mind and machines. Wow.

The prime focus for starting this blog is in my interest for the brain and its cognitive functions. I want a place where I can perform both objective experimentation and subjective exploration, and express my thoughts on my findings. The reason I've waited so long to start this blog is that I wanted my own electroencephalograph (EEG) as a tool to appease my curiosity.

Ya I hope I spelled that right. An EEG measures brain waves at a localized region of the brain. This nifty device would help me address so many questions I have about cognitive dynamics and the nature of consciousness. For instance, I want to explore the subjective idea of immersion and getting lost in one's own reality. This phenomena emerges in many forms all the way from different kinds of focused and open meditations, to a psychedelic experience, to fear and adrenaline. It even spreads to the moments in life of pure awe and inspiration that Jason Silva attempts to capture in his Youtube series, Shots of Awe. Nothing gets me quite inspired like his unconventional perspective of the world.

So what changed? Why am I finally starting this blog? Well, I finally got an EEG! It's from a kickstarter startup with one of the first open source EEGs on the market. The devices are called the OpenBCI boards. In another post I'll go into why I chose them over some of the other emerging EEG companies right now.

Now what am I going to do first with it? One of my current dreams is to develop a game that uses EEG input and provides feedback in an engaging way that allows the user to learn to control their mind and move it into certain states at will. My real motivation for this game is so that I can play it, but sure I guess it could do some good for anyone else that would like to try it. I've currently started the back end code for this project which can be found on my Github account. I, again, promise to make another post going into much greater detail about my project in the future.

On the side, I'll be doing fun experiments and trying to address any questions I can fathom with it.