Functional description

This EEG model is designed to capture mainly alpha and beta waves, which correspond to a relaxed (but awake) and concentrated state respectively. This discrimination makes it possible to build a program whose behavior can be altered depending on which of these two states appears to dominate the EEG wearer. This simple distinction opens the door to a range of applications, from the mind-controlled game of “Pong” proposed by the original EEG designer, to a program to train the user to master his or her level of concentration/relaxation. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Project status

The project is still in the development phase, but tests have been successfully carried out on the preliminary version of the project made on a prototyping board. The printed circuit board has been manufactured using CNC (after several tests) and the components have been soldered to it. However, the printed circuit board is having difficulty reproducing the positive results of previous tests. The project is therefore in the problem diagnosis phase for the time being. Once the problem has been solved, the next step will be to find or write a program that can read, save and display the data supplied by the circuit.

Update: The problem has been successfully solved, and we now need to develop the software side of the project.

For more complete and technical documentation, visit the project page on the echoFab wiki.

The project was carried out by Yoann Ochietti as part of his animation internship.

Thanks to Roby Provost and Raphaël Demers for their electronics expertise, and to Yann Aublet Longpré and Tais Grote for getting the project off the ground.

Demonstration

Origins

An electroencephalogram measures electrical activity in the brain using electrodes placed on the head. Several consumer versions of this tool are currently emerging on the market, stimulated by potential applications in biofeedback and as a computer control interface.

While commercial versions of EEG often cost several hundred dollars (Emotiv), a number of initiatives have been launched to make this technology accessible to the amateur with a little motivation and about fifty dollars. All you have to do is follow the plans offered by one of these projects to build your own instance of an EEG and then apply it as you see fit. For the current project, the instructions proposed by a user of the website Instructables were used to produce a printed circuit board version of an EEG from a little basic electronics (resistors, capacitors, amplifiers), open source software (Fritzing, Inkscape) and the CNC d'échoFab.