[Noisebridge-discuss] brain-controlled robotics project

Wed Nov 17 02:29:51 UTC 2010


    Had a good time last night playing around with the Emotiv and
Neurosky headsets.


    With Rachel and Jake's help we tapped detections from the Emotiv
headset into control commands for the MC Hawking electric wheelchair
robot. I was kind of running back and forth between that and working on
the RC Helicopters with Miloh but managed to get a couple second of
video footage of the whole thing looking appropriately dangerous:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPtuunvq8r8


    Would love to get a more formal demo video shot, especially as we
were just doing EMG detections (facial muscles) as opposed to
"legitimate" thought control - although that's easy enough to do with
the Emotiv. I just put that quick video together to send to NeuroSky to
prompt them about the status of a pending SSVEP library. With SSVEP it
should be possible to do precise 4-direction movements.

    SSVEP (Steady-State Visually-Evoked Potential) is very simple and
requires no training. You basically tap into signals emitted by the the
visual cortex at the back of the brain. You present a set of visual
stimulus (such as checkerboard patters on a screen or even just a bank
of LEDs) which blink a different - say 15 Hz for one, 18 Hz for another,
and so on. The brain's visual cortex will harmonize with the blink rate
in a detectable way, so you can tell which of a set of such stimuli the
user is looking at. You then assign a direction control to each stimuli
and you're all set - look at one pattern and you move forward, look at
another and you turn right, and so on.

    If there's anyone here who's a strong coder with a solid mathematics
background I would love to collaborate and could probably walk them
through creating an Open Source implementation, provide the necessary
papers, and put them in touch with the right researchers to support the
effort. I think I can even dig up some code for MATLAB, though ideally
the final version wouldn't have any proprietary dependencies. Please let
me know if anyone knows anybody who might be interested!


    Here's a great video of SSVEP in action from some guys I know at
Northeastern University:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuC0RTf1taw


    I may swing by again this evening for a bit after the video game
developer's meetup at Jillian's. Have run into a bit of a wall regards
the RC Helicopters, about which I'll post a separate message to the list
shortly - could certainly use some thoughts there.


Cheers

Steve


On Thu, 2010-11-11 at 05:14 -0800, Steve Castellotti wrote: 

> Hey all--
> 
>      I just wanted to send a quick word of introduction to the group.
> 
>      My name is Steve. I swung over this past Tuesday evening along with 
> the Make:SF crew, and hung around the next several hours meeting a fair 
> few of you.
> 
> 
>      I've been managing an Open Source project for the past year which 
> is geared towards teaching kids (ages 10+ or so) a little bit of 
> neuroscience, helping them build robots out of LEGO Mindstorms, then 
> control and race them with their brains using consumer-grade EEG headsets.
> 
> 
>      Here is a brief demonstration video:
> 
> http://brainstorms.puzzlebox.info/index.php?entry=entry100923-100000
> 
> 
>      And here is the project website:
> 
> http://brainstorms.puzzlebox.info
> 
> 
> 
>      The current version of the software measures attention and 
> relaxation levels using a NeuroSky MindSet, translating those into 
> acceleration levels sent to the robots. Basic support for the Emotiv 
> EPOC is also available, although for classroom use I've been leaning 
> towards the former as it has dry sensors (where kids are concerned, wet 
> + heads = bad) and is easy to put on and start using without much 
> fiddling about.
> 
>      There's a variety of paradigms for controlling the robots and 
> several new types of "games" planned on the roadmap, but for the moment 
> the software is working and in active use in at least one classroom on 
> the East coast (Incidentally I am looking for more local schools which 
> might be interested to get involved). The focus is now on building up 
> case studies and fleshing out the teaching materials to better integrate 
> into existing curriculum.
> 
> 
>      Last night I brought round the remote control for a small RC 
> helicopter, and with a great deal of help from Milo, Anthony, John, and 
> a few others we managed to almost completely reverse-engineer the 
> circuit board and transmitter's communications protocol. I'd like to 
> extend a huge thanks to those guys for sticking around past 2 AM to help 
> bang it all out!
> 
> 
>      I'm planning to bring in my gear on Monday for the electronics 
> hacking session. I'll have the NeuroSky and Emotiv headsets, my LEGO 
> kit, and the RC helicopter (assuming I can managed to transport it all) 
> and would be happy to show anyone interested how it all hangs together. 
> With any luck I will already be on my way to getting the RC helicopter 
> to fly via the software. The intention is to pick up a second helicopter 
> and be able to have races in which two people compete to achieve and 
> maintain high enough levels of focus to keep the helicopters in the air 
> and be first to cross the finish line.
> 
> 
>      Thanks again for everyone's help and looking forward to catching up 
> with folks come Monday.
> 
> 
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Steve
> 
> 
> 


Steve Castellotti
Puzzlebox Limited
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