Jedi masters aren't the only ones who can move things with their minds. For about $450, you can buy a 3D-printed headset that records your brainwaves and converts them into signals that can control everything from a robot arm to a remote-controlled helicopter. And you don't need to have brain surgery to operate it! A Brooklyn-based company called OpenBCI (short for brain computer interface) makes these headsets and sells them to students and hobbyists. And unlike most commercial products on the market, all of their software and hardware plans are open source. I visited their lab in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to try it out myself. Here's what it was like:
OpenBCI, a Brooklyn-based technology company, has devised a 3D-printed headset called Ultracortex Mark IV, which records EEG brainwaves and EMG face muscle signals, converting these into circuit board signals to operate anything from a remote-controlled helicopter to a robotic arm. The company is working on an even more advanced version of the device, dubbed Ultracortex Mark V, that will be able to record brain activity in real time as well as transmit those data wirel@@ The company has plans to design a new version of the headset that can send electricity into the brain as well as out of it, through a technology called, transcranial direct current stimulation technology (tDCS).