Author: Wentao Wang

 
One in every ten people in this world is disabled in a certain way. This equates to 650 million people-living with a disability. We might not know how they were disabled, but we can all imagine how different their lives could be. What if there is a product that could help the disabled to do things with their minds only? Brain Artist is seeking a solution for them. With this product, users will be able to make artistic drawings without actually using a paint brush, but with their mind instead.
The product contains two main parts. An EEG headset and a computer screen-based visualizer. The EEG headset will record the electromagnetic waves generated by your brain, then filtered out and separated into different components, including attention, meditation, alpha band, beta band theta band, etc. Different brainwaves represent different function of the brain. Due to the technological limitation, the only two brainwaves that could be interpreted and controlled properly are the attention and meditation level. The attention level will rise when you are focusing on a certain thought, visual cue, sound, etc. And the meditation level will increase when you are more relax.
There are three different kinds of visualization included in this project. The first one is to create a flower like image. The more you focus, the cursor will move more towards the center, and vice-versa. The more you relax, the color will be more greenish, and the less relax you are, the whiter it will be. You can also control the speed, the number and the thickness of the stroke. You can pause and save the image whenever you find it worth saving.
The second project I call it the Space. You can use your keyboard/mouse to control a planet/black hole to attract all the other small planets in the space. The more you concentrate, the attraction force will be greater. And the planet you are controlling will be redder. And when you lose attention, the planets you have attracted will escape away. You will also be able to manipulate other variables like adding friction or changing the attraction distance of your planets. By playing with it, you can not only train yourself to control your attention, but also immerse in a space environment and enjoy playing with it.
The third visualization is more open and more likes an experiment. Your attention and meditation level will control the painter. The greater you focus, the cursor will move to the right, the more you relax, the cursor will move more to the top, and vise-versa. You can also manually change the speed, thickness of the painter to create your own art work.
One purpose of this project is to help disabled people to get involved with the of art creation, since the users don’t need to hold a brush by themselves. On the other hand, this project also benefits healthy people in the way of helping them practice mind control. For instance, users will be able to develop their capacity on focusing attention through the process of using this product. Young children will find it fun to play with while getting their cognitive capacity developed when playing. And for ADHD patients, it helps them to better control their attention in a playful and relaxing environment. Everyone could benefit from using this product, and with better development of this brain-computer interface, it will change the way we interact with computer in the future.