brain-computer interface

Timeline

8 Weeks
November 2018 - January 2019

Project type

Student trainee project

My role

Technical exploration

Tools

Emotiv Epoc+, C#,
Unity, Arduino

Skills

UX Ideation, Unity Development

Outcome

Unity prototype for the Emotiv Epoc+ brain-computer interface

I wanted to build a

brain computer car interface

01 Overview

As a trainee at icon incar I got the chance to work on the integration of a brain-computer interface into cars. I developed a prototype interface with the Emotiv Epoc+ and Unity, which could be used as a starting point for further development.

Emotiv Epoc+ headset

What is this thing?

The Challenge

02 Challenge

Back then icon incar bought the Emotive Epoc+ headset and never really used it. The software for it was a beta version and to be honest very clunky and didn't work well. Yet I was curious about the technology and gave it a shot as a side project. Handling the daily work business and besides working on this technology exploration was quite time-demanding.

always a fancy hairstyle after fitting the headset

Explorations

are the best part

03 Exploration

Investigating on the different possibilities, I found out that the headset can deliver various datastream (EEG data, performance metrics, facial expressions, motion data) and can also be trained to understand mental commands by the user. I decided to use the performance metrics which seemed to be the most stable function. The metrics are EEG data values that are precalculated and synthesized by the Emotiv Cortex API to explain current brain states like the level of stress, engagement, interest, excitement, focus, and relaxation.

Headset performance metrics output values

Headset mental command training

Coming up with ideas

Ideation

04 Ideation

After getting some inspiration, I found a video of the Acura Mood Roads case study. I decided to do something similar and wanted to develop a mood-based car interior ambient light. To do that I first needed to figure out a way how to integrate the performance metrics data into Unity and then hook it up to an Arduino controlling some LEDs.

Ambient light ideation

Developing a prototype

Thank god there's Github

05 Development

Luckily Emotiv provided their Cortex API also in C#, which I could use as a plugin to access all the functionalities inside of Unity. Additionally, they had a project example in which they imported the performance metrics data into an Excel sheet. I rewrote the project to import the data into an XML-file which I could then easily extract. I built a simple interface in Unity showing the current mood of the user and the prototype was ready to go. After that, I tried to link everything to the Arduino and LED Stripe, but couldn't finish the project because I had to focus on my studies again.

C# Metric Logger Excel Example

Debugging incoming performance metrics values inside of Unity

Final Unity BCI interface

Building the interface

Setting up the Ambient light

First working prototype

Working with new technologies

is always a lot of fun

07 Conclusion

Even though this was only a small technology exploration side project, I had a lot of fun with it. I learned new tricks and skills and had the opportunity to work with a very interesting and promising new technology. Shoutout to icon incar and the whole creative technology team for lending me their headset and giving me the freedom to be curious during worktime. I’m really grateful for that.

Still curious?

Check out some of my other projects