DIY: Brain:computer interaction

This is a follow-up on last Monday's post reporting research and development activity on brain-computer interaction.  Here is a repeat of the video shown there:

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At Neuroscape Labs' page about the Glass Brain Project this video is described as

... a Unity3D brain visualization that displays source activity and connectivity, inferred in real-time from high-density EEG using methods implemented in SIFT and BCILAB.

If you're interested in following along with current efforts to visualize brain activity and maybe break new ground, tools are available.

SIFT, which is open source and can be downloaded at the SIFT site, is an EEGLAB-compatible application and

 ...toolbox for analysis and visualization of multivariate causality and information flow between sources of electrophysiological (EEG/ECoG/MEG) activity. It consists of a suite of command-line functions with an integrated Graphical User Interface for easy access to multiple features. There are currently four modules: data preprocessing, model fitting and connectivity estimation, statistical analysis, and visualization

BCILAB is an open source "Matlab Toolbox for Brain-Computer Interface research."

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For the visualization part (video that can be uploaded to YouTube, for example) Unity3D, a game engine, offers a free version for Windows and can be downloaded via the download page.

Now for the data collection.  A number of sites offer a variety of headsets.  You can find a comparison of consumer brain–computer interfaces, both devices and projects, at Wikipedia.  Here's an example of one of the devices available (Emotiv, $299).

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May the Force be with you.

 -- Marge

Heads up, folks: the Glass Brain

It appears our brains are about to be hacked, which is not necessarily a bad thing...

"Second Life founder creates Glass Brain, a system that lets you explore your brain in real-time" is a headline from Neurogadget.  According to the article,

[Philip] Rosedale made his wife a cap studded with electroencephalogram (EEG) electrodes that measure differences in electric potential in order to record brain activity, while he wore a virtual reality headset to explore her brain in 3D, as flashes of light displayed her brain activity from the EEG.

For an idea of what he saw, here's a Glass Brain flythrough:

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This visualization was done in Unity3D; it allows the user to fly around and through the brain with a game pad while seeing real-time live brain activity from someone wearing an EEG cap. Rosedale collaborated with the Neuroscape Lab in San Francisco to produce the Glass Brain.  However, his main project at present is High Fidelity, which is:

...building a new virtual world enabling rich avatar interactions driven by sensor-equipped hardware, simulated and served by devices (phones, tablets and laptops/desktops) contributed by end-users.

Surf on over to the page to see what he means by "contributed by end-users." You're invited by Rosedale and his team to sign up for alpha and will be notified when it's available.

A related article found at Neurogadget is Brain-Machine-Brain Interface (BMBI).

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Miguel Nicolelis, monkey brain-machine brain (BMBI)

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Credit goes to Wagner James Au at New World Notes for his introductory post on the Glass Brain topic (Note: the site is currently offline, as of 11:50 AM AKDT).

More on the topic of brain-computer interfacing Wednesday.

 -- Marge

Lights, camera...animate

Having just started on producing an animated series (after I learn the software and do the artwork), I've been looking at examples for insight into the process works.  There are some truly great samples on YouTube.  I'm particularly interested in combining 2D and 3D.

iAnimate.net offers workshops (pretty spendy, but it looks like most things related to animation are) that produce some amazing output.   Here's their Members Showcase - Winter 2013 -- it's long but worth the time.

Here's another, shorter one from iAnimate -- Games - Fall 2012 Showreel.  (Note the excellent physics.)

In this next clip the concept of adding 2D drawings to a 3D animation is discussed, using the film short "Paperman" as an example.  Intriguing.  To quote from Snouty Pig's post:

"Paperman" director John Kahrs has described the process: "It's not like a texture map. It's just like painting on the surface of the CG. It acutally moves on a 2D layer that's driven by the CG."

My last sample is a presentation posted by DigInfo News, showing a new interactive technology using 2D to 3D animation:

If you're interested in doing animation, take a look at SplineBomb, which offers animation news, tutorials and works in progress.

If you want to try 2D and/or 3D animation without spending a small fortune for it, try Unity3d, a game creation software that can be downloaded free.  To sell your output you'll need to buy a license.  This Wikipedia article about independent video game development, which seems dated because it doesn't include iOS, Android, and other newer platforms, gives an idea of how licenses work.

It's beginning to look like adding 2D to 3D is twice the work.  Hmmm.

-- Marge