[Noisebridge-discuss] brain-controlled robotics project

Rachel McConnell rachel at xtreme.com
Wed Nov 17 09:58:42 UTC 2010


This was awesome fun and super interesting, thanks so much Steve!

Steve's setup is quite simple and clear and he kindly let me mess around
with the Emotiv headset for quite some time, trying to control my brain.
 It is a lot harder than I'd have thought!  As he mentioned, I wasn't
able to manage the 'pure' thought control really at all, I had to fall
back to facial tics which was plenty difficult.  Perhaps he'll bring
this equipment again and let someone else have a try.

Steve, do you think perhaps a meditator might have an easier time with
it? or someone with any kind of mental discipline... NOT LIKE ME.

Rachel

Steve Castellotti wrote:
> 
> 
>     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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