[sdiy] brainwaves to CV :O)

[Rutger Vlek]

Hi all,

glad to see so many responses to this topic!

Emotiv.com indeed offers a nice headset and development environment, although in a certain way it is limited (for instance channel positions). In a few weeks I'll have access to such a head set and will do some testing. I will also compare it to a 256ch research-grade EEG set and a different portable & wireless EEG set under development.

@Barry: you wrote "I don't see the difficulty in this.  Seems basically done." :). Engineering-wise everything is simple and basically done indeed, but the biggest challenge is finding and decoding the brain activity. This involves a lot of neuroscience and machine learning. If I had to make an educated guess on how long it takes before we will be able to decode a simple imagined melody from the brain and convert it to the pitch of let's say a Theremin, I would say: at least 15 years. However, in the meantime there are a few alternate ways in which this might work... I deliberately say 'might work', because I'm quite sceptic about existing systems. It takes *alot* to decode brain signals from EEG that can really be voluntarily controlled AND that function as reliable control signal for a musical instrument. It's very easy to end up in the ball-park of having the world's most fancy random noise source...

@Dave: thanks for the offer on alpha testing! At the moment I have nothing concrete to test, just dreaming :). But I'm making plans and have the luxury of a university (RU Nijmegen) research environment specialized in Brain Computer Interfacing as well as Music Cognition... :)

I'll keep you posted. Does anyone else have experience with EEG-sonification or connecting EEG to musical instruments?

Best,

Rutger


On 9 sep 2010, at 17:24, Barry Klein wrote:

> I don't see the difficulty in this.  Seems basically done.
> At emotiv.com they have an OSC dev package to tie into
> whatever software supports it, like max/msp, etc.
> 
> Barry
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gergo Palatinszky" <Gergo_Palatinszky at epam.com>
> To: "Synth DIY" <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
> Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2010 01:48
> Subject: Re: [sdiy] brainwaves to CV :O)
> 
> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> www.emotiv.com definityl open a possibility to develop a more complex controller that a toy however it wont be so easy to find out the best way + lot of research+development are needed...
>> 
>> http://www.emotiv.com/apps/sdkhome.php
>> Development packages are not so expensive I believe... so if you can find an ivestor who would like to see a brainwaves to CV/midi/? module or synth...
>> 
>> Br,
>> Pala
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl [mailto:synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of immanuel litzroth
>> Sent: 09 September 2010 10:34
>> To: Rutger Vlek
>> Cc: Synth DIY
>> Subject: Re: [sdiy] brainwaves to CV :O)
>> 
>>> If a software or hardware module would exist that allows you to map brain-signals to CV or MIDI, who would use it? Let's assume that you can't play the synth keys directly from you brain, but that you can only control one parameter (i.e. filter cutoff, while you play manually).
>> 
>> I would definitely need to have this.
>> Immanuel
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