New Open Source Platform Allows Anyone To Hack Brain Waves

For most people how the human brain works remains a mystery, let alone how to hack it.  A new Kickstarter campaign created by engineers Joel Murphy and Conor Russomanno aims to change this by putting an affordable, open-source brain-computer interface kit in the hands & minds of anyone.

Brain-computer interfacing (BCI), sometimes called a mind-machine interface is one of those areas of technology that has longed been viewed as mostly science fiction. The kind of technology you might see in a low budget Sci-Fi movie. Remember Luke Skywalker’s prosthetic limb in The Empire Strikes Back? More recently new advancement in the BCI field is now opening new opportunities for a seemingly limitless range of applications powered by nothing more than your thoughts.

...OpenBCI is built around Texas Instrument’s ADS1299 IC. The ADS1299 is an 8-channel, low-noise, 24-bit analog-to-digital converter designed specifically for measuring EEG signals.  The creators say,  “The great thing about OpenBCI is that it’s totally open source. At this point in time, building on top of the OpenBCI Brainwave Visualizer or building unique applications does require some basic programming knowledge. With that said, our mission is to lower the barrier of entry so that even amateur developers can get up and running right away