Saturday, October 31, 2009

Mind Reading Technology: the Mailing List

Can BCI be used for reading your mind?
The Germans would say "Jain" (Ja und Nein - Yes and No).

Yes, we can get your brainwave with EEG scanner and then recognize some patterns from the signals. We can also see wonderful 2D, 3D and "4D" patterns with MRI.

As a "Neuroscientist wannabe", I have been to a seminar showing that some phonemes can be "extracted" from EEG signals. So you don't have to move tongue and make a speech, the action of just thinking about a speech can be read by a machine. Scientists (Neuroscientists, Neurolinguists, and Engineers) have been doing this research. Maybe in the next 30 years, how the brain processes language can be interpreted by machine.

Human mind is so complex. Machine cannot really "read" your mind. Computers are able to read the patterns of brain signals. Only a few information from the human "mind" that can be extracted by machine.

I have found a mailing list in Yahoogroups which discuss mind reading technology. OK, it is not really a discussion. It is a monologue. Only one man posts and the other are just interested in reading the informations inside.

The site address:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mindreadingtechnology/

The list has a link to some websites about mind "reading" technology.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Tech Crunch Interviewed Bremen BCI in CeBit 2008

John Biggs from Tech Crunch made an interview with us, the BrainRobot research group from IAT Uni Bremen. Brendan Allison, as the leader of our group, explained many things about Bremen Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) in the CeBit 2008 event.

Here is a video about applications of Bremen SSVEP BCI for spelling and for moving robot.



You can see me for a couple of seconds. Yes, me with the long hair. I was too busy with preparing a subject to enter the Matrix. A subject wanted to participate in spelling experiment then.

The Next Uri Geller in CeBit 2008

In CeBit 2008, in Hannover, the IAT from Uni Bremen were placed in some corner. It is quite a convenient place. People went around passing that corner. That is the reason we could get 106 subjects in a week.

This video shows how I tested the spelling program before doing experiment with random subjects. You will see the stimulator with 5 flickering boxes: Left, Right, Up, Down and Select. In the middle, there are letters which we can choose to build a word. The hardwares used are notebook, EEG amplifier called g.USBamp from Guger Technologies, EEG electrodes and EEG cap. The news can be seen in Science Blogs.


Link: The next REAL Uri Geller




FYI, Uri Geller is a mentalist who like to bend spoons. He is famous in Germany.
And The Next Uri Geller is a TV show in Germany.

BrainRobot in CeBit 2008

In March 2008, BrainRobot research group of the IAT of the University of Bremen went to the CeBit in Hannover. We conducted a study of SSVEP-based BCI application there. We were doing experiments whether people can spell words using their brain wave: EEG. We got 106 subjects.

Below is the video about what happened in CeBit.

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The result of the experiments can be seen in Allison, et al, 2008, "BCI Demographics: How many (and what kinds of) people can use an SSVEP BCI?", Proc 4th International Brain-computer Interface Workshop and Training Course, Graz, Austria, pp 333-338.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

The first neuron

Hello, world!

This is my blog about Brain and I just made the first writing to introduce my blog.

I am Ignatius Sapto Condro Atmawan Bisawarna. People call me "Condro". I participate in the brain research in Bremen since 2008 (or maybe end of 2007). I am a master student in the University of Bremen. There, we have an institute called IAT and a research group called BrainRobot.

End of 2007, I helped a friend putting EEG cap and gel on the head. My friend is Indar Sugiarto. He was doing his project about stimulator for SSVEP using monitor of a desktop PC and a laptop. I think it is the beginning of my participation in the Bremen brain research.

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EEG is Electroencephalogram or Electroencephalography.
SSVEP is Steady-state visually evoked potential.

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In March 2008, BrainRobot and I went to CeBit Hannover. In a week, we got more than 100 subjects participating in SSVEP-based BCI research. We have spelling application and the subjects should spell some words using their EEG.

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BCI is Brain-Computer Interface.

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In November 2008, I started my master project "Final Preparation of the CeBit Data". In 2009, I finished the project and started fixing thesis topic in this area. Now, I have made up my mind and the topic is "Improvement of Response Times of SSVEP-based Brain-Computer Interface". I will do some computing related to Time Series Analysis.

While doing thesis, I made these blog and hoping the AdSense can give me money.