1. Mitch Altman Chief Scientist, Cornfield Electronics, San Francisco, CA Author of The Brain Machine in MAKE Magazine #10 Inventor of TV-B-Gone universal remote control email: mitch@CornfieldElectronics.commitch@CornfieldElectronics.com site: www.CornfieldElectronics.com Chaos Communications Camp 2007 August 11, 2007 Brain Machine: Hack Your Brain With Sound & Light

2. Entrains your brain to a desired brainwave sequence. What is a Brain Machine? Photo by Sam Murphy

3. Brainwave Types Beta: 13 to 30Hz Conscious, External Focus Alpha: 8 to 13Hz Spacey, Dreamy, Receptive, Passive Theta: 4 to 8Hz Subconscious, Deep Relaxation, Creativity Delta: ½ to 4Hz Unconscious, Intuition, Insight Gamma: 30 to 100Hz Not well understood, linked to Perception, Alertness, Anxiety

4. Brainwave Sequences Same for all healthy adults Example – Meditation: Beta (awake) Alpha (spacey, dreamy) Theta (subconscious) Delta (unconscious, insight) hang out here awhile reverse process come up feeling fabulous

5. What would happen if you played a brainwave sequence? Would your brain synch up? Would you be in the associated state? Inventing the Idea

6. Brief history Pulsing Sound in Ancient times: Alpha and Theta induced by ritual drum rhythms Pulsing Light in the 2 nd Century: Ptolemy

7. Brief history (cont’d) 1920s: Invention of EEG Hans Berger categorizes brainwave types 1930s: W. Grey Walter first to knowingly play brainwaves

8. Brief history (cont’d) 1950s: Invention of Dream Machine 1970s: Research, first patent, recordings of brainwave sequences, Monroe Institute

9. Brief history (cont’d) 1950s: Invention of Dream Machine 1970s: Research, first patent, recordings of brainwave sequences, Monroe Institute, Disco

10. Brief history (cont’d) 1980s & 1990s: Medical studies “Megabrain Power” by Hutchison Popularity in mass culture Beneficial claims Are claims real? Why not try it and see? Cautionary note: blinking lights should be avoided by anyone prone to seizures. Certain conditions, such as ADHD, can worsen with Theta and Delta entrainment.

11. Brief history (cont’d) 2007: Make your own Brain Machine article in MAKE #10

12. Brief history (cont’d) 2007: Make your own Brain Machine article in MAKE #10 Popular at parties

13. Motivation for MAKE Brain Machine Cheap Beginner’s project Show how fun microcontrollers are Hallucinate wildly without side-effects Trick people into meditating Hack of Ladyada’s MiniPOV kit

14. Motivation for MAKE Brain Machine Cheap Beginner’s project Show how fun microcontrollers are Hallucinate wildly without side-effects Trick people into meditating Easy to program Atmel AVR microcontroller

15. Binaural Beats An effective means for entraining your brain to sound Somewhat like beat frequencies: Base toneAlpha Offset toneAlpha Beat Frequency

16. Except it’s just in your head! Binaural Beats An effective means for entraining your brain to sound Somewhat like beat frequencies: Base toneAlpha Offset toneAlpha Beat Frequency

17. Brain Machine Theory Sound & Light together to create a brainwave sequence Simplified model: one brainwave frequency at a time

18. Brain Hacking: By pulsing sound & light at brainwave frequencies you can make your brain track any sequence you like

19. Initialize everything start Timer #1 with Base Frequency of 400Hz into speaker #1 Do get next brainwave element from brainwaveTab (type and duration) start Timer #2 with binaural beat offset frequency into speaker #2 blink LEDs for Left and Right eyes at brainwave frequency for brainwave type wait for the specified duration Until end of brainwaveTable stop Timer #1 and Timer #2 to stop audio at both speakers turn off Left and Right eye LEDs put microcontroller to sleep (low-power mode) Firmware Example brainwaveTab entries: { 'b', 600000 }, { 'a', 100000 },

20. Hardware

21. Meditation Here are just a few different ways: breathe follow thoughts focus on an intention (like a problem) make up your own way

22. Improvements to Basic Design Fade the audio in at beginning and especially fade out at the end (gentler). Fade the lights on and off, rather than blinking at full power (easier on the eyes). Mask the binaural beats with music or ethereal sounding drones. Use up to four frequencies at once, one for each brainwave type (enhances entrainment). Vary the output intensity of each frequency the SLM works with (enhances entrainment). Use a different colored LED for each brainwave type (enhances entrainment). Use a differently pitched binaural beat for each brainwave type (enhances entrainment). Use a more powerful microcontroller (to implement all of the above). Make multiple brainwave sequences available (e.g., sleep, meditation, arousal). Use a wrap-around soft fabric sleep-mask (more comfortable, especially for sleeping). Use lighter and smaller batteries (more comfortable). I’ll be using a rechargeable battery that is soft and flexible, sewn into the sleep mask