BCI News Roundup

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Kalan Vuksanovich

What’s so cool about working at InteraXon is the constant access to new and exciting research in thought-controlled computing and neuroscience. Twice a month, it’s our pleasure to bring you the highlights. This week: monkeys sense textures through virtual limbs, neurons sport their sweet spots, and YouTube meets brain-computer interfacing.

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TEDx Wraps Up With a Bang!

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Kalan Vuksanovich

It’s official. TEDx Toronto was an absolute delight for InteraXon CEO Ariel Garten.

Last Friday, Ariel delivered her speech at the convention, which was extremely well received by fellow Ted Talkers. Her presentation included a real-time Projection Mapping demo that allowed the audience to literally see her brainwaves in action. But the fun wasn’t limited to the podium. After the speech, Ariel spent the entire lunch hour engaging with a crowd of people interested in sharing their thoughts on TCC’s potential to connect us with a deeper part of ourselves.

“This was a bit of a different talk for me,” Ariel admits in an post-TED e-mail. “Normally I talk about the technology, how it works, the history, our partners in the space, and the kinds of things people have been controlling with this technology. I always end off with what is important to me – that this technology’s most interesting application is to help you know the self.” The talk was unique for Ariel because it dealt completely with this last point. And this really hit home with the TEDxTO crowd.

When the time came to let loose at the after party, Ariel couldn’t walk two steps without encountering a friendly new face, ready to chat about the solutions we create at our lab. So here it is – a huge, warm THANK YOU to everyone who participated in TEDx last weekend and made it so much fun for us at InteraXon. Please stay connected through Twitter and Facebook. See you next year!

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Video Interview: Jeremy Bailey Shares The Meaning & Message Behind ‘Thought Controlled Drawing’

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Gena Meldazy

(Warning: Delightful humor within)

At the beginning of 2011, Jeremy Bailey was approached by InteraXon to create a piece of BCI drawing software using a Neurosky headset.  The software was developed, tested, and presented for a performance at The New Museum in June as ‘Thought Controlled Drawing’.

It’s hard to separate Jeremy Bailey’s ‘Peter Parker’ from his performance artist alter-ego.  By day, Bailey is an Art Director for a software company.  By night, Bailey flies under the radar as a famous new media artist, showcasing his work to audiences and museums around the world.  Frequently performing with programs his ‘Peter Parker’ has created, his work humorously discusses the affects of technology, and the often absurd relationship between technology and the body.
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InteraXon Hits TED Talks This Friday

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Kalan Vuksanovich

If you follow us on Twitter, you know that this Friday InteraXon CEO Ariel Garten is set to take the stage at Toronto’s TEDx conference. TED Talks are about spreading powerful ideas that change the way we think about ourselves and the world. All talks at this year’s TEDx Toronto will hinge on the theme of Redefinition.

Ariel’s speech will focus on how thought-controlled computing may work to help us understand the self. Her presentation is geared up to include the world’s first live brainwave-wave Projection Mapping. It’s scheduled for 12:30pm, so be sure to hit the conference’s website for a live stream. Check back here after the weekend for a wrap-up post, and feel free to reach out on Twitter and Facebook while we cover the conference!

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Electronic “Temporary Tattoo” Looks Good on BCI

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Kalan Vuksanovich

Over the past couple of weeks, the internet has been buzzing with talk of a wireless semiconductor skin sticker that monitors heart beats, muscle contractions and – you guessed it – brain waves. Heck, we’ve even Tweeted about it. But lately, our team here at InteraXon has been chatting more and more about this thinner-than-thin “tattoo” interface, meditating on the doors it could open for BCI applications. Why? It’s unobtrusive. If a similar concept is applied to BCI, it could mean huge leaps in user comfort.

Developed by the highly creative researchers at the University of Illinois (alongside their other colleagues in the US, Singapore, and China) the “Epidermal Electronics” patch houses a maze of ribbon-like circuitry including a tiny EEG setup. Like a temporary tattoo, it rubs onto the skin with water. What’s really cool here is the fact that the patch moves with the natural bends and wrinkles of the skin. It’s visible, but it puts no physical weight on the user. This is key when considering the device’s potential applications to the health sciences – specifically patient monitoring. But along with this, the tattoo represents another step towards the miniaturization of BCI hardware.

This week, we reached out to Professor John A. Rogers to talk a bit about time lines. “This is our first paper on this technology,” he admits in a friendly e-mail. “In that sense, it is still early days. If funding streams can be identified to support joint work, then we can provide devices to interested potential collaborators.” That means it will probably be a matter of years before a BCI applications lab like InteraXon can start to play with this kind of technology. But that’s no reason not to get excited. Commercialization, Rogers expects, will happen through a well funded start-up company called mc10, founded a couple of years ago by the U of I team. “I hope that they will be able to turn their attention to EEG related systems in the next year or two,” he adds. And we hope so too. This certainly suggests that some cool new approaches to BCI are on the horizon.

To read the original paper, click here.

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BCI News Roundup

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Gena Meldazy

Every week new research is published about the possibilities and benefits that BCI technology could bring to our lives.  We’re a lot closer then ever to seeing this technology available for affordable mass consumption.  From the ‘cool’, to the previously ‘impossible’, everything from video games, cures for cognitive conditions, and driver-less cars.   InteraXon rounds up the highlights of whats happening in the world of brainwaves.

1/ ‘Focus Pocus’ Kids Computer Game Set To Release September 2011 Using NeuroSky Headset

This week, University of Oxford reported that the kids computer game Focus Pocus will finally be released in September 2011.  This is huge news for BCI.  Why?  The games’ highly advanced NeuroSky headset is consumer ready, currently available at $100 or less.  The game itself uses ‘focus’ orientated skills and games to treat children with various levels of ADHD.  Matt Baum at Oxford has called the game “the most advanced computer game to use a consumer brain computer interface (BCI)”

Read the full article here

2/ Scientists Discover Brain Signals That Activate Mind-Reading Assisted Driving

Remember the driverless Batmobile in 1989′s ‘Batman’; a car that always seemed to know Bruce Wayne’s location, and brake, turn, or park on its own?  Neurogadget and The Journal for Neural Engineering reported that scientists in Germany made a research breakthrough which could soon could bring variations of those features to your driving experience.

Researchers used to EEG and EMG electrodes to connect a test subject to a driving simulator,  and then measure signals such as the intent to brake the car.  According to Neurogadget: “With the resulting EEG and EMG data, the researchers were able to identify signals that occurred consistently during emergency brake response situations.”

Read the full study here

3/  InteraXon in Bloomberg

We’re creating technology experiences that will change how we interact with the world.  In June of 2011 the InteraXon team welcomed Bloomberg into our downtown Toronto office for a video feature and news piece about what we do and our vision for where brain computer interfaces are going.  You can watch it here.  Please comment and share widely!

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Interview with Dr. Steve Mann – InteraXon’s very own Research Advisor

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Kalan Vuksanovich

If you’re like me, you get excited when someone tells you you’re going to be interviewing a real live “cyborg.” Naturally, this term carries with it an air of fantasy. But this is actually how University of Toronto Professor Steve Mann (Faculty of Applied Sciences and Engineering) has been described by media like NOW Magazine, The Globe and Mail, and The National Post. For some context, Dr. Mann is known globally for his invention of the wearable computer over thirty years ago – a device which has since seen many incarnations, paving the way for some of the professor’s later innovations in BCI. But with over 100 patents including Eye Tap technology, and the Hydraulophone, an underwater pipe organ, Steve admits laughingly that even he – in relation to himself at least – “[doesn't] know quite what the word ‘cyborg’ means.”

Recently, I caught up with the inventor at his Dundas West studio, right across from the Art Gallery of Ontario, to talk brainwaves, philosophy, and hydraulophones. Since InteraXon sprung out of Mann’s innovations in thought-controlled computing, I had a lot of questions R.E. the development of early 2000s BCI, and the future of thought-controlled technologies. Click on the video below to see what he has to say!

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BCI News Roundup

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Gena Meldazy

Every other week on the InteraXon blog, we count down the top BCI news and updates from across the continent. This weeks news roundup begins with a skill testing question: what do a robot and a bike have in common? Read more, after the jump, to get the answer.
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BCI News Roundup

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Gena Meldazy

To celebrate the end of another fantastic week, we’ve picked the best of the best in BCI announcements for your weekly InteraXon News Roundup….

1/ Second Life Builds Another Virtual Gaming BCI

Second Life, the popular online gaming portal which lets users build virtual reality memes and experiences, has developed a sophisticated brain computer interface in partnership with our friends at the Austrian company G.Tec.  The interface allows website members, with paralyzing disabilities, to control their avatar and interact with others in Second Life.  According to published findings, the interface goes one step beyond the virtual realm, and can also control real-world surroundings.  Read more about it here

2/  Scientists Can Now Predict Your Future

The world of BCI’s take a new and exciting turn when you read (and combine it with) this: researchers at University of Western Ontario have discovered a way to predict the future actions of another human being based on a brain scan.  Sound familiar?  Here’s how

I hope they can’t see what I have planned for my afternoon.

That’s it folks!  Stay tuned for more, next week.

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Using BCI’s To Manage Epilepsy Through Cognitive Control

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Gena Meldazy

Using brain-computer interfaces to study cognitive control in patients with neurological conditions, such as Epilepsy, is providing new insight into the benefits this technology has for health care.

Most cognitive functions are direct neuronal responses within the Cognitive Control Network (CCN) . The network is a coactivity between 6 different regions of the brain which are involved in shaping and managing conscious will.  These forms might include completing a task, making a decision, languages, and memorizing information.  In a variety of Epileptic forms, the condition affects the CCN, directly impacting things such as memory, and foretelling possible chemical changes in the brain itself following a seizure.

Using a BCI device called the P300 Speller, patients with Epilepsy were found to be able to manage cognitive functions effectively. A 2011 research piece presented at the 5th International Conference On Neural Engineering looked at 6 epileptic subjects who were implanted with electrodes. Each subject was given BCI challenges 48 hours following the implant, no more then 6 hours following a seizure, with the P300 Speller.  Subjects were asked to focus attention, silently, on the speller as it moved through a variety of exercises.

Engaging with the P300 Speller required both attention and memory, with oscillating Alpha waves being linked to both these activities.  Researchers found that a reduction in Alpha activity lead to a marked improvement in cognitive function, for the patients, during their assigned tasks.

So what does this all mean for patients with neurological conditions? Speaking with Epilepsy Ontario, representative Alex Dolan says that: “BCI’s and thought-controlled software could be beneficial to people with epilepsy as it would make them more aware of the brain waves which compose their electroencephalograph (EEG) [...] This kind of software could help people with epilepsy create a sense of calmness by training them to use their alpha waves when needed.”

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