2020!!! (+ the headset designs finally + pictures)
Welcome back readers,
aLOhA!
So... it's really been a long time since I've updated this blog. As my personal life got busier after summer holidays I really neglected this platform, and to everyone who interacts with me on this, I apologise. To all my year 13s out there applying to Unis, you know how intense it has been since September. After this little hiatus, I am happily back.
My intentions with this blog going forwards are as follows:
I have finally finished the drawing up of the headset, and the images can be seen below. The Gamekid device drawings will follow shortly after.
After doing research I discovered the average circumference of an adult lies between 53cm - 57cm, so I wanted to make a headband that would accommodate these sizes. I designed an adjustable headband, with 5 different holes corresponding to 5 different ridges. These will allow the headsizes within this range. The band I designed will either be made out of MDPE (commonly used in tubes) which is durable, strong, electrically insulating and flexible, or silicone- rubber material (less rigid, softer and therefore more comfortable for wearer). Realistically, I'll probably just by a hard hat suspension for this, but if I was in an ideal situation in which I could make it from scratch, I would probably explore the differences between making a headband with these 2 materials. Who knows - it might work! (see image for more specific dimensions)
Inside the headband I would have cotton lining to increase comfort around the head. The cotton would be 5mm thick and be between the innermost hole and ridge on the band .
Attached to the headband would be a cross, made of cotton reinforced with elastic. At each end of the cross would be a clip, and 4 centimeters up from it would be a button for to attach to. The clip/button bit is designed to fold around the headband, and the cross structure is designed to fold around the armband at four different points. The nature of the material means that it can stretch to fit many head shapes. (See image for more specific lengths)
After researching like projects, I have come across some toys which measure brainwaves. All the brainwave processing is already done by the toy, which tends to be lightweight, and cheaper than getting a BCI and the electrodes together. The toy can be decoded and in most occasions they have wireless connections, which can be used in conjunction with other devices like a phone. If I use an arduino with a wireless port and a device to pick up the wireless signals, these can be used in an algorithm to interact with other devices and make them move. This is most likely the avenue I will go down. I don't yet have a drawing for this idea, as it will probably involve remodelling of the entire hat.
On the cap's surface, there will be an infrared emitter that can be used to interact with a device with an infrared detector, to control its movements. The location of the emitter will either be on the top of the cap or the brim of the cap, but top seems to be the best idea as there will be fewer obstacles from a greater height on the cap.
This is my first draft for the project, and as a result many things about it are likely to change. As I touched on already with the technology, which is the biggest part of the project, there will be a lot of reworking with that - I just wanted to get something out to show the very first idea I've come up with. I've tried to design a lot of the structural stuff in detail, for good practice, but in reality, it is more cost effective to buy something with the basic structure for the headband that I've designed, and then model the tech around that.
This project is looking very promising now, and hopefully it can be completed during summer, after the Gamekid project.
Thanks for reading :)
Have a blessed year!
EO
aLOhA!
So... it's really been a long time since I've updated this blog. As my personal life got busier after summer holidays I really neglected this platform, and to everyone who interacts with me on this, I apologise. To all my year 13s out there applying to Unis, you know how intense it has been since September. After this little hiatus, I am happily back.
My intentions with this blog going forwards are as follows:
- Summer 2018 I did a massive graphic design project (see previous blog posts). This summer I will do an even bigger one, but more details nearer June
- I will continue with the gamekid device. The code for that is a month away from being finished, but I really want to give details for the completed thing rather than me flailing around trying to find solutions.
- I am going to also be embarking on the headset development over summer 2020. A lot has changed in how I want to develop it, so the notes below were my thoughts last summer on it. As I touch on below, a lot of the drawings are from scratch, and in reality it will probably be more effective to use bought items and code it to fulfil its role in the headset. You will see what I mean especially in regards to reading brainwaves.
- I will be updating the blog every second Saturday (so every 2 weeks from today). As most of you were able to see, my consistency with this blog has been a little trash, so I will be bringing you str8 faxx (about engineering developments/ how things work) every other week.
And on that note, here are the drawings of the headset, 4 months later!!
I have finally finished the drawing up of the headset, and the images can be seen below. The Gamekid device drawings will follow shortly after.
After doing research I discovered the average circumference of an adult lies between 53cm - 57cm, so I wanted to make a headband that would accommodate these sizes. I designed an adjustable headband, with 5 different holes corresponding to 5 different ridges. These will allow the headsizes within this range. The band I designed will either be made out of MDPE (commonly used in tubes) which is durable, strong, electrically insulating and flexible, or silicone- rubber material (less rigid, softer and therefore more comfortable for wearer). Realistically, I'll probably just by a hard hat suspension for this, but if I was in an ideal situation in which I could make it from scratch, I would probably explore the differences between making a headband with these 2 materials. Who knows - it might work! (see image for more specific dimensions)
Inside the headband I would have cotton lining to increase comfort around the head. The cotton would be 5mm thick and be between the innermost hole and ridge on the band .
Attached to the headband would be a cross, made of cotton reinforced with elastic. At each end of the cross would be a clip, and 4 centimeters up from it would be a button for to attach to. The clip/button bit is designed to fold around the headband, and the cross structure is designed to fold around the armband at four different points. The nature of the material means that it can stretch to fit many head shapes. (See image for more specific lengths)
The tech stuff that was a hangup last time has thankfully all been sorted out. For this design I want to use gold cup electrodes, to detect the brainwaves. The only flaw of this is that a conductive paste is required with the brand of gold cup electrodes that I want to use. Ideally I will find dry electrodes. These will be connected to an OPENBCI board (the are compatible with arduino, and if necessary I will probably wire up an arduino board as well which will do the main computing and send signals to an infrared emitter). The OPENBCI board will filter the brain waves and detect their nature (side of the head where brain stimulation is highest, the type of wave - for this we need beta waves in the range 12-30Hz), whilst the arduino will make decisions on what signals to send to the infrared emitter. based on the brainwaves processed by the OPENBCI board. Two obvious flaws I can already see about this are that it will make the cap very heavy and clunky, which obviously wont be profitable for the wearer, and the cost of the entire thing. The OPENBCI boards are upwards of ~£200, and getting the right arduino (probably a nano arduino) will also cost some money. Furthermore setting up the OPENBCI will take some complex coding (they do have open source code for this on their website so this should be fine), and I am not yet sure how to relay the brainwave information from the OPENBCI board to the arduino (the kind of protocols it will use, the libraries to download, and most likely I will need to get a breadboard too - making the whole thing clunkier). The design is down below but please bear in mind that this is probably not the avenue I will be going down with this.
On the cap's surface, there will be an infrared emitter that can be used to interact with a device with an infrared detector, to control its movements. The location of the emitter will either be on the top of the cap or the brim of the cap, but top seems to be the best idea as there will be fewer obstacles from a greater height on the cap.
This is my first draft for the project, and as a result many things about it are likely to change. As I touched on already with the technology, which is the biggest part of the project, there will be a lot of reworking with that - I just wanted to get something out to show the very first idea I've come up with. I've tried to design a lot of the structural stuff in detail, for good practice, but in reality, it is more cost effective to buy something with the basic structure for the headband that I've designed, and then model the tech around that.
This project is looking very promising now, and hopefully it can be completed during summer, after the Gamekid project.
Thanks for reading :)
Have a blessed year!
EO
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