I would love to have a machine that shows my brainwave state, but they are all several thousand dollars. What are some affordable alternatives?
L
onge
C
ity
Advocacy & Research for Unlimited Lifespans
Posted 02 September 2013 - 10:44 PM
Posted 03 September 2013 - 05:31 AM
Posted 25 October 2013 - 05:36 PM
Edited by DorianGrey, 25 October 2013 - 05:43 PM.
Posted 25 October 2013 - 06:47 PM
If 100-150$ isn't much money for you than go for the Neurosky Mindwave Mobile. I read a very critical review on the Mindwave and basically the noise level of a single electrode device is too high and the product is at best functioning, but not mature. Their customer service seems to be a nightmare, read reviews on Amazon. These are early days for these gadgets.
Posted 25 October 2013 - 08:31 PM
Posted 26 October 2013 - 04:44 AM
Look at Neurogadget.com for more information, that's a good starting point. I have tested one of the Neurosky devices and it has connection issues, the free apps I've seen are less than stellar.
It's kind of fun to see it finally work but I am still not sure where I take it from there, still looking for a good neurofeedback app that helps you attain certain wave patters (alpha, delta). Also Lucid Dreaming induction would be nice, there's currently a kickstarter campaign called Luci.
I find very limited use in just knowing I do pay attention or I am relaxed, the two parameters the meditation app records.
If 100-150$ isn't much money for you than go for the Neurosky Mindwave Mobile. I read a very critical review on the Mindwave and basically the noise level of a single electrode device is too high and the product is at best functioning, but not mature.
Their customer service seems to be a nightmare, read reviews on Amazon. These are early days for these gadgets.
There's a Canadian company (from Vancouver, although they have an office/showroom(?) in Toronto) that will come out end of this year with a multi-sensor device for under $300, I think that could be a mature product. You'll find more on Neurogadget.com or just use a search engine. It's the company that features Nuit Blanche and CN Towner lightshows via mindreading, I think they did other landmarks like Niagara Falls, too. So, apparently not another tiny garage op.
Honestly you can do biofeedback without any machinery, if you just do some mindfullness meditation and watch a certain body function, such as breathing rate, heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, etc. Obviously this is a little less fun and requires more effort, but it can be very effective if done correctly.
Edited by Godof Smallthings, 26 October 2013 - 04:48 AM.
Posted 23 November 2013 - 02:17 AM
Posted 18 February 2014 - 02:52 AM
Edited by DorianGrey, 18 February 2014 - 02:53 AM.
Posted 18 February 2014 - 09:54 AM
Posted 18 February 2014 - 10:00 AM
I didn't get LucidScribe running yet, it stops at the COM selection
Posted 20 February 2014 - 04:57 PM
Edited by DorianGrey, 20 February 2014 - 05:05 PM.
Posted 21 February 2014 - 03:21 AM
Mindreflector looks interesting but doesn't have a trial version. I don't want to spend 100$ and find out it sucks
What exactly do you mean when you say NeuroProgrammer does not provide direct feedback? If I am using free LucidScribe and aforementioned free sources of entrainment I would probably get a similar setup?
Posted 26 February 2014 - 12:28 AM
Posted 26 February 2014 - 02:13 PM
Posted 28 February 2014 - 07:01 PM
Posted 03 March 2014 - 11:47 AM
Posted 05 March 2014 - 12:44 PM
Edited by Godof Smallthings, 05 March 2014 - 12:47 PM.
Posted 11 March 2014 - 02:13 PM
Posted 12 March 2014 - 04:59 AM
Posted 12 March 2014 - 01:37 PM
Posted 14 May 2014 - 11:47 AM
Hi Yuri,
The Muse headsets for developers were sent out in April, while the consumer headsets I ordered have still not shipped, with no word from InterAxon so far as to when they estimate to do it.
I will be sure to do a mini review once I have received mine.
For now, I am still occasionally using a by now slightly defect Mindwave Mobile (for some reason the signal quality has deteriorated - makes it more of a challenge to play the games, for sure.) and the InnerBalance iPhone device from HeartMath.
If I had more cash to spare I would buy myself a new normally functioning Mindwave Mobile, as the combination of Mindwave Mobile with the NeuroCoach iPhone app - hypnosis scripts that adapt according to neuro feedback from the Mindwave Mobile - is something I really like.
Posted 14 May 2014 - 12:20 PM
If you're looking for an EEG device on a budget, I think the below looks the most promising:
Should start shipping soon.
I think I will pick one up when it starts shipping as I've been looking for a decent EEG device at a good price for some time. Unfortunately the current range of products available doesn't meet my requirements without spending big $ for research/medical grade devices.
Muse looks like a nice device for neurofeedback and training purposes. Let me know how it goes
Posted 14 May 2014 - 04:16 PM
Hi Godof Smallthings
I wanted to buy Mindwave Mobile but read several reviews that the headset is small and not convenient to use.
Yours is OK?
Posted 14 May 2014 - 05:46 PM
It really depends what you are looking for.
You can not use the Neurosky devices for serious neurofeedback, but they are OK for rudimentary attention and relaxation training, although, as I said in an earlier comment, in my experience regular mindfulness/meditation is more effective. Without the tech, you learn to develop awareness of your own mind and body feedback without relying on any externals.
I think Open BCI does look really interesting and has potential, but my experience with open source projects is not super-positive overall. It can take a very long time for easy-to-operate end consumer software to appear, if it ever does. The enthusiasts are typically engineer types - they tend to have cool ideas and solutions, but they are often developed for other tech savvy people, and nice GUIs and usability tend to take a back seat. Hopefully this project is different, but until I've seen what becomes of it, I'll hold off purchasing.
Posted 14 May 2014 - 11:14 PM
Posted 14 May 2014 - 11:38 PM
It really depends what you are looking for.
You can not use the Neurosky devices for serious neurofeedback, but they are OK for rudimentary attention and relaxation training, although, as I said in an earlier comment, in my experience regular mindfulness/meditation is more effective. Without the tech, you learn to develop awareness of your own mind and body feedback without relying on any externals.
I think Open BCI does look really interesting and has potential, but my experience with open source projects is not super-positive overall. It can take a very long time for easy-to-operate end consumer software to appear, if it ever does. The enthusiasts are typically engineer types - they tend to have cool ideas and solutions, but they are often developed for other tech savvy people, and nice GUIs and usability tend to take a back seat. Hopefully this project is different, but until I've seen what becomes of it, I'll hold off purchasing.
Fair Call.
I will pick up the Open BCI when it comes available (unless something better crosses my path before then) and let you know my thoughts.
Edited by MadScientistX, 14 May 2014 - 11:38 PM.
Posted 16 May 2014 - 01:42 AM
InterAxon just posted an update about the Muse.
Turns out one of the components needed from their sub contractors is back logged, which means production is stalled for another couple of weeks, which will in turn cause an estimated delivery delay of 4-6 weeks from now.
Edited by Godof Smallthings, 16 May 2014 - 01:43 AM.
Posted 05 September 2014 - 01:59 AM
Good news - I now have a Muse!
So, here is a review.
Overall score: 4 out of 5
Price: 299 USD
Looks: Looks great when not worn, but when I wear it I look like a bit like a wingnut because my ears come forward when the Muse is snugly fitted around the head. This may just be me, as we all have differently shaped heads and ears.
Build Quality: The materials used look great and kind of expensive, but the headband itself is more delicate than I had imagined. For that reason, it is not an outdoors device. Interaxon delivered Muse with a sturdy hardcase to protect it from shocks, so they seem to be aware of this.
Perceived sensor quality: Excellent - very sensitive - Interaxon appear to have gone a different route than NeuroSky, whose dry sensor on the Mindwave Mobile appears to have filtered the signal very heavily before it is fed to any software. The Muse seems to be more sensitive to movement and general signal noise - but I think this is mostly a good thing - the NeuroSky probably filters out too much to be reliable for EEG purposes (this is probably because NeuroSky decided that the brain-computer interface capability was more important, seeing it more like a gaming device than an EEG).
Based on the feedback in the app Calm, which comes with the Muse, the Muse definitely appears to be more accurate than the NeuroSky MindWave in detecting subtle mind changes, but (for some applications) this comes at the price of greater noise sensitivity, so sitting very still is important.
Comfort: The Muse fits snugly around the head and feels great, unlike the NeuroSky MindWave Mobile which presses into the side of the head and gets a bit painful after 10 minutes+.
Usefulness: After just one week of daily use, the Muse has already helped improve the quality of my meditation. My scores in the Calm app show a general climbing trend, and my sessions are now on average 70% - 80% calm, whereas they started out at around 50%. Apart from the app telling me I have improved, I can actually feel it as well. The short moments of 'total calm' I experience give rise to a very pleasant feeling which is hard to describe, but really feels amazing. I am very motivated to use the Muse several times a day.
App(s): As of now, there is only one app for the Muse, developed by Interaxon themselves. It is called Calm, and it does what it intends to do - through the use of real time audio feedback, it guides the user to sit very still and calm the mind.
Overall impression: The Muse is not quite what I expected when I first supported their Indiegogo campaign - the pictures in the campaign showed two users, both of them out of doors, using the Muse. The guy was walking over a pedestrian crossing and looked like he was out exercising. The woman sat down at a table in a cafe with an iPad. But due to the Muse's sensitivity, wearing it during exercise is not feasible. And to break out the Muse in a public setting and sit down and meditate... maybe nerds like me may consider it. Other people won't.
But those caveats aside, the bottom line:
I am still REALLY happy with the Muse and the Calm app, because they are both carefully designed to help achieve my goal of improving my stillness meditation technique, and I am seeing tangible improvements in as little as a week - invaluable. Neither the Mindplace Thoughtstream, the Neurosky MindWave Mobile nor the Inner Balance sensor from HeartMath have been that effective, although the Thoughtstream effectively teaches you to sit still, the Inner Balance sensor teaches you to affect your vagus nerve and the MindWave Mobile can help improve attention. But my subjective opinion of the Muse is that it seems to be more reliable, and capable of even greater things provided app development takes off.
For meditation to have lasting effects, is has to be done every day. The Muse helps me do that.
Posted 05 September 2014 - 11:05 PM
I have a more expensive neurofeedback set up but some of these newcomers (interaXon muse, Emotiv Insight) seem pretty appealing for convenience reasons. Being wireless and having dry sensors makes me think that even if the signal is less robust in some way it's probably something you could use more readily in 'post-meditation', that is in cultivating mindfulness during regular activity, which in a lot of ways is more challenging than sitting meditation. Maybe not while you're really active or anything, but if your studying or reading something, or consuming entertainment media or something, maybe it could give you a bit of a prod when your awareness grows dull.
Edited by umop 3pisdn, 05 September 2014 - 11:06 PM.
Round Table Discussion →
Technology →
biofeedback for Lyme disease or other chronic infectionStarted by Omega 3 Snake Oil , 25 Mar 2016 biofeedback, lyme |
|
|
||
Science & Health →
Brain Health →
Binaural Beats, NP3Started by Pallas , 05 Jan 2015 beats, hypnosis, biofeedback |
|
|
||
Science & Health →
Brain Health →
Enhancing nirHEG with hGH and/or EPOStarted by StabMe , 19 Jun 2014 nirheg, neurofeedback, epo and 3 more... |
|
|
||
Science & Health →
Brain Health →
Help Choosing Neuro/Bio-Feedback device and Software???Started by bbminded , 12 Apr 2012 eeg, heg, neurofeedback and 3 more... |
|
|
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users