Behold, I’m about to tell you a true story of innovation, winning prizes, and creating a mind-melding Labyrinth game.
Daniel Harari, Gal Weinstock, and Maxim Altshul participated in the Autodesk-sponsored Brainihack 2015 event in Israel last weekend. But these three future-winners had no idea what they were going to build when they got to the event. These guys had no training in neuroscience, and well, Brainihack is designed and promoted as a neuroscience hackathon. The group just tossed caution to the wind, decided to have some fun, and ended up beating out every other entrant in the ‘open source’ category to win the OpenBCI prize.
The three students (two pursuing systems engineering and one computer science) ended combining the Arduino platform with EEG to create a fascinating controller for the game: the mind. The team used one OpenBCI (Open Source Brain-Computer Interface) to invent their unique, award-winning game on the spot, though they did receive some help from one of the OpenBCI founders, and harped in on something called Steady State Visually Evoked Potential. The brain matches a frequency that stimulates the retina, which they used in lockstep with Alpha and SSVEP waves-to allow a 3D printed Labyrinth platform to move via translated brain waves.
Over the course of the 1.5 day hack-a-thon, the team used any and all available materials to complete the Labyrinth game-from zip ties, random hardware, nuts, bolts, and anything else they could get there hands on. Improvising when necessary, they completed the project just in time.
Here’s some good news: the Labyrinth game is up on Thingiverse! You can download and 3D print your own Labyrinth game. And the code? Good news there too, as Harari will be posting the code on GitHub, so anyone can take their brain-game motor and mutate it into anything they can.
The team was rewarded for their improvisational skills, open minds, and quick learning with an OpenBCI Starter Kit, which saves them a cool $500, if they had plans to buy it.
