1. Make Waves Nick Carter 1-27-2016
This presentation is made for free educational purposes.
Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

2. Your Brain is Electrical!
Your brain is made up of millions of NEURONS
The neurons use chemicals and electricity to communicate with each other
It takes a lot of energy
The Brain takes 20% of the total body energy.
2/3 of that brain energy is used to help Neurons send electrical signals
Brain cells use chemical reactions to make electricity
EEGs* measure the external brain voltages so we can look at them
* ElectroEncephaloGraphs

3. With Your Brain!!!!
Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

4. The MindFlex Game uses Brainwaves to Control Objects.
The Headset measures the Brain electrical signals and separates the different waves out
It uses the signals to sense how focused you are.
These signals are sent wirelessly to the base unit to control the ball or the fan position in the game.

5. We can see the signals it measures “Frontier Nerds” (FN) made a way to see the Wave Signal Sizes (I used Wireless Bluetooth connection to the PC instead of USB)
PC display - using FN Processing App.
Serial link on Bluetooth
Baseline electrode provides an electrical reference from the ear
Arduino Parses data, based on Neurosky*
“Mindset Communications Protocol”
PC Display
Samples move this way at 1/Sec
Bar Graph Values of
Current Sample
* “Neurosky” is the company that designed the technology and game

6. Brain Wave Pulse Rate Matches How Active your Brain is
Delta waves – when unconscious or asleep
1/10 to 4 pulses a second
Theta waves – when conscious but sleepy
4 to 7 pulses a second
Alpha waves – when relaxing physically and mentally
7 to 13 pulses a second
Beta waves -- when actively alert, tense or agitated
13 to 60 pulses a second

7. Brain Waves
Brain Waves measured here are electrical signals detected on the outside of your brain
They result from the total average electrical activity inside your brain
You cannot get a shock from them, they are very small voltages
The signals change in size at regular intervals between 1/10 and 60 times a second depending how active the brain is.
Professional and Medical EEGs use a lot of sensors giving data for better analysis.

8. Received neurotransmitter chemicals make new electrical signals
Electrical signal pulses make neurotransmitter chemicals cross to the other neuron
Received neurotransmitter chemicals make new electrical signals
Enough new electrical signals sensed makes an electrical pulse go -
Electrical signal pulses 
New Electrical signal pulses 

9. Electricity in Brain cells
Brain cells use chemical reactions to make electricity
Brains do not have wires so they use human friendly chemicals to send electricity through the cells.
A neuron sends electricity using a pulse of IONs (charged chemicals - rather than the electrons themselves) to where it touches another neuron at a synapse.
The electric pulse makes a chemical called a neurotransmitter go to the next neuron.
If the next neuron gets enough neurotransmitters it will make an electrical pulse to send towards the next one.