Download Making Waves With Your Brain!!!!

Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Your Brain is Electrical!
• Your brain is made up of millions of NEURONS
• The neurons use chemicals and electricity to
communicate with each other
• It takes a lot of energy
– The Brain takes 20% of the total body energy.
– 2/3 of that brain energy is used to help Neurons send
electrical signals
• Brain cells use chemical reactions to make electricity
• EEGs* measure the external brain voltages so we can
look at them
* ElectroEncephaloGraphs
Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The MindFlex Game uses Brainwaves
to Control Objects.
• The Headset measures the Brain electrical
signals and separates the different waves out
• It uses the signals to sense how focused you
are.
• These signals are sent wirelessly to the base
unit to control the ball or the fan position in
the game.
We can see the signals it measures
“Frontier Nerds” (FN) made a way to see the Wave Signal Sizes
(I used Wireless Bluetooth connection to the PC instead of USB)
Serial link on
Bluetooth
Baseline
electrode
provides an
electrical
reference
from the
ear
PC display - using FN
Processing App.
Arduino Parses data, based on Neurosky*
“Mindset Communications Protocol”
PC
Display
Samples move this way at 1/Sec
Bar Graph Values of
Current Sample
* “Neurosky” is the company that designed the technology and game
Brain Wave Pulse Rate Matches How
Active your Brain is
Delta waves – when unconscious or asleep
1/10 to 4 pulses a second
Theta waves – when conscious but sleepy
4 to 7 pulses a second
Alpha waves – when relaxing physically and mentally
7 to 13 pulses a second
Beta waves -- when actively alert, tense or agitated
13 to 60 pulses a second
Brain Waves
• Brain Waves measured here are electrical signals
detected on the outside of your brain
• They result from the total average electrical
activity inside your brain
• You cannot get a shock from them, they are very
small voltages
• The signals change in size at regular intervals
between 1/10 and 60 times a second depending
how active the brain is.
• Professional and Medical EEGs use a lot of
sensors giving data for better analysis.
Electrical signal
pulses make
neurotransmitter
chemicals cross to
the other neuron
Electrical signal pulses 
Received
neurotransmitter
chemicals make
new electrical
signals
Enough new
electrical signals
sensed makes an
electrical pulse go 
New Electrical signal pulses 
Electricity in Brain cells
• Brain cells use chemical reactions to make electricity
• Brains do not have wires so they use human friendly
chemicals to send electricity through the cells.
• A neuron sends electricity using a pulse of IONs (charged
chemicals - rather than the electrons themselves) to
where it touches another neuron at a synapse.
• The electric pulse makes a chemical called a
neurotransmitter go to the next neuron.
• If the next neuron gets enough neurotransmitters it will
make an electrical pulse to send towards the next one.