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Brain Pics

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This project measures how my brain secretly feels about random people.

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First I downloaded 35 million Google Profiles
into an MYSQL database. This took me a month.

http://blog.cyberwar.nl/2011/05/google-profiles-exposes-millions-of.html

The database looks like this:

Then I hooked up a Teensy microcontroller to a
Mind Flex Toy EEG headset, mostly like in this project:

http://frontiernerds.com/brain-hack

The Teensy:

My Teensy microcontroller board fits nicely inside the case.
I had to Dremel out a little hole for the USB cable to plug into the headset.



The front 2 wires are power from the Teensy to replace the batteries, and the other is
connecting the serial out of the MindFlex to the serial in of the Teensy.

The Teensy is hot glued in place, and soldered to the MindFlex.
(That is, after making lots of crunchy crispy noises from being hot glued.)
A hole is also drilled in the casing allowing access to the USB port.

The Finished computer connected EEG mind reader.
(I wish I would have had the forthought to have the USB cable come out of the bottom
of the headband, instead of the top, but such is life.)

I had to modify the Arduino code for the Teensy:

#include <Brain.h>

HardwareSerial Uart = HardwareSerial();
   // Set up the brain parser, pass it the hardware serial object you want to listen on.
   Brain brain(Uart);

void setup() {
   // Start the hardware serial.
   Uart.begin(9600);
   Serial.begin(9600);
   pinMode(11, OUTPUT);
   digitalWrite(11, HIGH); 
   }

void loop() {
   // Expect packets about once per second.
   // The .readCSV() function returns a string (well, char*) listing the most recent brain data, in the following format:
   // "signal strength, attention, meditation, delta, theta, low alpha, high alpha, low beta, high beta, low gamma, high gamma" 

   if (brain.update()) {
   //Serial.println(brain.readErrors());
   Serial.println(brain.readCSV());
   }
}   

For the experiment, I display a random Google Profile picture for one second and measure the subjects brain waves.
The mind reader will output 11 channels of brainwave information,
I am only using two channels for this experiment, Attention and Meditation.

I put the Headset on and connect it to my computer.
Then I start the program and watch some random Google Profiles
flash by while the headset measures brain activity:

Then I do fun stuff in Excel with the data I've just collected:

I find out in the end of that session that dawgies make my brain the most relaxed and attentive.

Puppy!

Any questions?
paulklemstine@google.com
raver1975