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Open Source Headset Enables New Mind-Controlled Devices (popsci.com)
An anonymous reader writes: "When DARPA funded research into a brain-computer interface, artist and engineer Joel Murphy and his former student Conor Russomanno built a working prototype," reports Popular Science. After a crowdfunding campaign, the team successfully developed an Open Source version -- a $399 headset that can register brain-wave electricity (named Ultracortex), along with a $99 board named Ganglion that can use those signals to control mechanical devices. "We want it to essentially be a Lego kit that you get in the mail, which also just happens to be a brain-computer interface," says Russomanno.
Their web site is already accepting pre-orders, though because both the hardware and software are open source, you can also generate your own headset with a 3D printer. And according to the article, two British students are now using the technology to create an app that issues commands to a smartphone by winking.
Their web site is already accepting pre-orders, though because both the hardware and software are open source, you can also generate your own headset with a 3D printer. And according to the article, two British students are now using the technology to create an app that issues commands to a smartphone by winking.
Been done, open source software and hardware plans available, also available ready to play for $399?
The significance here isn't a high CMRR amplifier, it's a complete brain-computer interface component that's ready to be used as a standard HID like your keyboard or mouse. Well, I don't see the USB port, but some boffin needs to put one on there and re-release the upgraded device. And, that's the point, it's a significant chunk of tech already worked out in a standard, readily available format that a community can form around and extend and improve - like Raspberry Pi or Arduino (that happens to be at the core of this), sure the tech has been available forever, but not in a "community oriented" "developer friendly" package.