[HN Gopher] DIY Neurotech: Making BCI open-source thrusts brain-...
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DIY Neurotech: Making BCI open-source thrusts brain-signal into a
maker's world
 
Author : Marat_1975_
Score  : 83 points
Date   : 2023-04-19 15:09 UTC (7 hours ago)
 
web link (spectrum.ieee.org)
w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org)
 
| anonymouse008 wrote:
| Did anyone listen in to OpenBCIs TED talk today? What was their
| demo about?
 
  | pedalpete wrote:
  | I haven't seen it yet, but they've been working on a big
  | project in BCI + VR, so I'm assuming that's mostly what it was
  | about.
  | 
  | Our team used to work in metaverse tech, and now we work in BCI
  | (for sleep), so I'm have some experience with both areas.
 
| codetrotter wrote:
| I was looking at brain wave (EEG) sensors on AliExpress recently.
| But I couldn't tell if spending hundreds plus euros on those
| sensors would be worth it or not.. so for now I did not order any
| of them
| 
| Also I am a little bit afraid that some of those EEG devices on
| AliExpress could accidentally fry my brain so there's that as
| well..
 
  | mcshicks wrote:
  | You might consider trying a muse 2. I bought one used on eBay
  | for $125. There is a very good app mind monitor you can see
  | what's going on quickly and get captures and python options
  | like muse-lsl for doing your own capture and analysis.
 
| bayesian_horse wrote:
| As far as I know, surface EEG is almost useful in terms of
| controlling anything. It can even be quite hard not to make the
| software cheat and work with the much stronger and easier to
| control signals from muscles.
| 
| Stuff like that is useful for neurofeedback, however. I haven't
| tried the newer models of the Mindwave headset, but the older
| ones were easy to interface with over bluetooth. That's a place I
| might start rather than building a custom electronics board.
 
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| I wonder how long it will be before something like this can
| interface with the brain with electrodes that go into the brain
| (like Neuralink) instead of on the surface?
| 
| Then 'all' we need is a plugin for Obsidian.
 
  | meindnoch wrote:
  | As soon as we figure out how to prevent fatal brain infections
  | occurring from foreign bodies embedded into your skull!
 
    | bayesian_horse wrote:
    | Is that actually an issue with current technology? Other
    | implants, like bone replacements or simple screws for
    | orthosynthesis, have higher sterility requirements than a
    | brain implant might have, given that the brain has an easier
    | time fighting infections. And they wouldn't usually implant
    | the electrodes inside the brain but rather on the surface but
    | below the skull.
    | 
    | And it's not completely necessary to have a physical
    | connection to the outside. Again, I'm not sure what the
    | current generation of BCI implants are doing, but technically
    | it should be possible to completely close the wound (which
    | may "only" be a small hole drilled into the skull), then use
    | wireless transmission of power and information. Maybe that's
    | not convenient enough right now to get the amount of data
    | required, but it's more than theoretically possible.
 
      | therein wrote:
      | Brain is an immune privileged organ so it is the opposite
      | of your intuition. Get an infection into the brain and it
      | is done.
      | 
      | > Immune-privileged sites include the central nervous
      | system and brain, the eyes and the testes. Even foreign
      | antigens accessing these tissues do not generally trigger
      | immune responses.
      | 
      | https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-
      | genetics-a....
 
      | meindnoch wrote:
      | No.
      | 
      | Any type of foreign body is inaccessible to the immune
      | system, therefore prone to harbor sources of chronic
      | infections, like bacterial biofilms.
      | 
      | "A significant proportion of medical implants become the
      | focus of a device-related infection, difficult to eradicate
      | because bacteria that cause these infections live in well-
      | developed biofilms."
      | 
      | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16353112/
      | 
      | No thanks, I don't want this anywhere near my central
      | nervous system.
 
      | toss1 wrote:
      | >>brain has an easier time fighting infections [vs bones]
      | 
      | While the brain has better blood supply than the hard outer
      | parts of bones, which tends to accelerate healing, the
      | brain also relies heavily on the blood-brain barrier to
      | keep out many threats. Crossing the blood-brain barrier is
      | a big deal, and we shouldn't assume automatically that
      | it'll heal better.
      | 
      | >>it's not completely necessary to have a physical
      | connection to the outside INDEED! This is completely key,
      | as having a continuous surface breaking to just under the
      | skin is a huge infection problem that must be continually
      | cleaned and monitored, and having one right into the brain
      | is a truly scary high-risk proposition. So successfully
      | encapsulating and sealing it behind the blood-brain barrier
      | is essential.
      | 
      | The problem is that this means wireless communication at a
      | meaningful data rate, through the meninges encasing the
      | brain, the scull, and scalp. This means power consumption,
      | power supply, and necessary power supply replacement
      | operations - into the brain, again.
      | 
      | The biology side is not trivial, even as we advance the
      | electronics side, but I'm very much looking forward to
      | these hurdles being overcome!
 
      | ccooffee wrote:
      | > given that the brain has an easier time fighting
      | infections [than bones]
      | 
      | This doesn't match my understanding at all, but I'm not a
      | medical professional. As far as I know, the brain relies
      | heavily on isolation for protection. One function of the
      | blood-brain barrier[0] is to prevent contamination of the
      | central nervous system from pathogens and toxins. Bacterial
      | meningitis is treatable with proper antibiotics, but still
      | maintains a 10% mortality rate[1].
      | 
      | Additionally, simple mechanical implants (e.g. plates,
      | screws, replacement joints) don't require interfacing with
      | the body. They are often made of solid metals which are not
      | bioreactive (e.g. titanium) or coated with bioresistant
      | polymers[2].
      | 
      | [0]
      | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood%E2%80%93brain_barrier
      | 
      | [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470351/
      | 
      | [2]
      | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthopedic_plate#Materials
 
| yummypaint wrote:
| This is a different technology that uses optical methods, but the
| ninja FNIRS project is very exciting and open source. They seem
| to have a solid and modular hardware design. I know someone who
| uses a commercial NIRS instrument in a clinical research setting
| and they said this open source system looks far more capable.
| 
| https://openfnirs.org/hardware/ninjanirs/
 
  | mhb wrote:
  | Does it say anywhere on that web site WTF fNIRS is?
  | 
  | "OpenfNIRS is driven by the community to support the community
  | in the use of fNIRS."
  | 
  | Edit: They sort of mention it, apparently en passant, on
  | https://openfnirs.org/standards/:
  | 
  | "Shared Near Infrared Spectroscopy Format (SNIRF) is designed
  | by the community in an effort to facilitate sharing and
  | analysis of NIRS data."
 
    | pizza wrote:
    | functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy, like fMRI
 
| flaviut wrote:
| This is a really bad idea. There's a direct conductive path
| between the power supply and the person. Knowing users, the PSU
| will be a $2 Shenzhen special wall wart rather than a battery
| pack.
| 
| At least the other dev kits they compare themselves to have a
| prominent warning they should only be operated off battery.
 
  | Arrath wrote:
  | Sounds like Big OSHA trying to keep enterprising hackers from
  | giving themselves electrical super powers.
 
| pedalpete wrote:
| Open-BCI has had their Ganglion board available for years, and it
| is also open-sourced hardware and software. It's more expensive
| than the PiEEG, but this probably isn't as new as the headline
| suggests.
| 
| As discussed in a thread a few weeks ago, the hardware often
| isn't the challenging or expensive part of building a BCI system.
| 
| Electrodes and a softgoods system to reliably hold them in place
| comfortably is a big challenge.
| 
| The off the shelf pre-build components are expensive,
| uncomfortable, and/or unreliable (from our experience).
| 
| We're building a sleep wearable EEG headband which monitors sleep
| state and uses auditory stimulation to increase deep sleep in
| realtime (https://soundmind.co).
| 
| We started by working with the Open-BCI board. It was a good
| starting point, but once we tried to get it on our heads and
| sleep with it (not lying next to us on the bed), we needed to
| move to our own custom hardware.
| 
| That was not a big challenge. A month after that decision, we had
| a custom board.
| 
| But electrodes, and keeping electrodes in place, that's where the
| challenge is. Off the shelf stuff is either uncomfortable and
| expensive, or not of high enough quality to use in EEG.
| 
| We've had to not only design our own electrodes, but also the
| system to hold them in place comfortably while sleeping.
| 
| Many other BCI devices don't have the "sleeping" requirement, but
| it is still a PITA to get things going on an average users head.
| 
| Emotiv (also a local Sydney, Australia company) has some great
| devices which can be easily used - but I don't think they give
| direct access to the data.
| 
| By all means, people should play with the BCI tech, but just know
| that if you think you're going to buy a board, and use it in an
| environment where the person is not very still, you are going to
| run into lots of issues.
 
| spicybright wrote:
| So has have the market for raspis mellowed out yet?
| 
| Last I checked the past few years made them near impossible to
| get as industrial orders got priority over hobbyists.
 
  | mindcrime wrote:
  | I think things are starting to improve, yes. If you look at
  | rpilocator[1] now, you see a LOT more green in general than,
  | say, a month ago. Now to be fair, a lot of it is for Pico
  | boards and/or Pi 3 boards, but still, progress is progress. And
  | this lines up with that they told us back in December[2] when
  | the word was that the situation would start to improve sometime
  | in Q2 2023 and that stocks (and prices) would reach normal
  | levels sometime in the second half of 2023.
  | 
  | I suspect that once enough supply hits that the scalpers start
  | getting stuck with stock they can't resell at a premium, and
  | turn off their bots, things will improve very quickly. Of
  | course that's just my hunch. YMMV.
  | 
  | Also, FWIW, there's no difficulty in getting a Pi 4 now. You
  | only have to be willing to done one or the other of two things:
  | 
  | 1. Pay an exorbitant price. If you're willing to buy from
  | scalpers who scoop them up and resell them, you can buy an 8G
  | Pi 4 right now on Amazon for the low, low price of $180.00.[3]
  | 
  | OR
  | 
  | 2. Be very patient. There are authorized resellers selling at
  | MSRP who are taking backorders and who will ship you a board as
  | soon as they get it (relative to your position in the queue). I
  | believe both Mouser and Newark are taking backorders for most
  | Pi models (and one or the other, or both, have some Picos and
  | other low end boards in stock).
  | 
  | The only real problem is if you want one RIGHT NOW and you want
  | it as MSRP. And even then, if you watch rpilocator enough,
  | you'll eventually catch a few in stock somewhere and be able to
  | order one for immediate delivery. I understand that Adafruit
  | receive stock fairly frequently (which unfortunately sells out
  | very fast) but I've had luck getting Pi's from Elektor a couple
  | of times in the past year. Or one could drive to the nearest
  | Microcenter store that has stock, if you happen to live within
  | reasonable driving distance of one of their stores.
  | 
  | [1]: https://rpilocator.com/
  | 
  | [2]: https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/supply-chain-update-its-
  | goo...
  | 
  | [3]: https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Pi-Computer-Suitable-
  | Workst...
 
  | jeron wrote:
  | this has to be forecasting mismanagement at this point. The
  | chip shortage has mostly come to an end, they're either
  | severely underforecasting from incompetence or intentionally
 
    | i-use-nixos-btw wrote:
    | I don't even think it's a forecasting issue at this point.
    | It's a lack of a plan B.
    | 
    | In this time they could have launched new products that make
    | the most of available supply. They didn't.
    | 
    | They could have recognised the hit that their b2b-first
    | distribution model has had on their reputation and tried to
    | make amends. They didn't.
    | 
    | They could have coordinated with the alt-board suppliers to
    | make "RPi approved" models for the Rock Pi, Orange Pi etc as
    | a stop gap. They didn't.
    | 
    | Hell, they could have bumped costs up a bit to spend on
    | mitigating supply issues, reduce demand and burn scalpers.
    | They didn't.
    | 
    | So instead they just keep promising, just keep delaying, and
    | we keep waiting. Even if their supply issues are through no
    | fault of their own, it feels like they aren't even trying.
 
    | nibbleshifter wrote:
    | There's still shortages of a whole bunch of random parts
    | (wireless chips, etc).
    | 
    | Unsure if its actually impacting Pi manufacturing
    | specifically, but its hit some other products I want.
 
  | genpfault wrote:
  | Doesn't look good[1].
  | 
  | [1]: https://rpilocator.com/?country=US&cat=PI4
 
| Mark_Frenk wrote:
| how control robot toy with this device
| https://youtu.be/wNgCEKIXGUY
 
| charcircuit wrote:
| Sensing signals inside of the brain are much less exciting to me
| compare to writing signals via people's eye balls and ears or
| reading signals from people's various muscles.
| 
| Measuring how "focused" or "stressed" someone is is too much of a
| gimmick to me.
 
  | vasco wrote:
  | You can do that from EEG. You usually get an API which exposes
  | a number of wave "channels". Depending on the person, if you
  | for example make your hand into a fist, you might get an
  | isolated spike on one of the channels. When developing custom
  | controls based on these signals it's difficult to find actions
  | that will make a channel or combination of channels spike
  | consistently, but you may end up with like, "press tongue to
  | top of mouth" for yes, "make right hand into a fist" for no
  | kinds of things.
  | 
  | This is from some minor diy experimentation a few years ago,
  | might be out of date.
 
| Mark_Frenk wrote:
| and sources https://github.com/HackerBCI/EEGwithRaspberryPI
 
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(page generated 2023-04-19 23:00 UTC)