5 replies to this topic

[Now]

NeuroSky, Inc. is a manufacturer of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technologies for consumer product applications. It was founded in 2004 and is a Silicon Valley based company. The company claims that their mission is to make BCI technology available to any industry. NeuroSky adapts electroencephalography (EEG) and (since the release of blink in 2010) electromyography (EMG) technology to fit a consumer market within a number of fields such as entertainment (toys and games), education, automotive, health and wellness.

Through the development of inexpensive dry sensors (traditional EEGs require the application of a conductive gel between the sensors and the head), built in electrical “noise” reduction software/hardware, and a focus on providing an embedded (chip level) solution for signal processing and output, NeuroSky technology allows for research and products that would have been impossible with traditional EEGs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeuroSky

Website: http://neurosky.com

Has anyone tried this? Does it work or is this technology too new to work properly?

[Ben]

Looks to be very low resolution. There's the open source EEG project which would be a lot better and cheaper/

[Now]

Thanks Ben!

Too bad, but you get what you pay for. I think I will have to wait a few years.

Edited by Now, 09 March 2012 - 03:44 PM.

[Kahnetic]

I know I only just registered and my credibility may be questioned but I assure you all I'm not a representative of Neurosky. I have one of these devices and it does what it claims it does. Most of the applications are based on attention and relaxation and it does seem to reliably measure both. The default aps are pretty fun, but the novelty wears off fast. Once you've played with it for a while, there's not much to do with it. I haven't played with it in months as a result. I would love to see some third party developers work on novel and innovative (and preferably free) new aps and games for the Neurosky, because it has a lot of potential. Biofeedback has been shown to be very beneficial in mental disorders, so perhaps this device could be used in treating ADHD and chronic stress disorders.

Only buy one if you're interested in a mouth-watering, yet underwhelming, taste of what's to come in the future as BCI tech advances.

[A941]

I like the cat ears, really funny, can picture them on cosplay conventions.
I would like to see thes things been used to enable humans to use 3 or 4 arms, that would be great, or to command a robot body to do dangerous things.

[Godof Smallthings]

As BCI's with the purpose of controlling games or physical devices, the usefulness of Neurosky chipset devices is limited, because there are only three defined parameters: attention, relaxation and eye blinks. Absolute (i.e. 'works every time and the values can be instantly increased or lowered at will') control of the attention and relaxation values seems impossible to achieve for me. However, relative control of them can be trained, and I have had success in doing that.

Perhaps those with a particular knack could also achieve absolute control, but personally I have not succeeded in this, despite using a MindWave device regularly for over a year.

I did come across a very easy way of sending the attention level up, that is not really related to actual attention:
- Smile and bow your head while still looking straight ahead at the screen (basically, recreate the body parameters for confident concentration). Achieve a sort of positive 'tension' in your body (but be relaxed in the neck and shoulders) and nourish a feeling of willpower and confidence. All of these tend to increase the attention meter, and once you have raised the value, reinforce whatever you were doing.

If I do this when I try to increase attention in real life situations, I don't feel as if my actual attention is increased (i.e. it would not help me understand more of a text I am reading, for example).

So, the usefulness of the device is to provide a feedback mechanism for its algorithms for focus and relaxation, but it is doubtful to what degree that the increased control of these algorithms actually spills over into and helps with real-life tasks. I have found that regular, normal meditation without tech enhancements or aids seems more effective.

The Emotiv EPOC seems to be more useful with the possibility to control more parameters, as well as software that you can train to recognize your own unique pattern for performing a particular command. However, it is more expensive and takes a lot more preparation to set up.

NeuroSky do not seem interested in getting a new BCI out on the market, but rather seem to have shifted into producing other types of sensors, like ECG/EKG.

However, there are two new BCIs on the way to market right now.

One from Canadian Interaxon called the Muse brainband, with 4 EEG dry sensors for the frontal cortex, two reference electrodes and an accelerometer. Raised 300 000 USD in their Indiegogo campaign and has secured another 5-6 million USD in investment capital.

Emotiv are also working on a new model with dry sensors, the Insight, which will have 5 dry sensors (frontal cortex (executive functions), parieto-temporal (auditory, spatial/co-ordination), and occipital (visual). It will have 2 reference sensors, a six axis inertial sensor and a 3 axis magnetometer.

There is also the Open BCI project, with 8 channel circuit boards that can be daisy chained to each other and a headset that can be 3D printed. If that really takes off, it looks very promising.