Sixth Sense:

EMG Control Application for Android Devices.  

Application WebPage: http://nrw2sixthsense.webs.com/

 

What it is:

The Sixth Sense application is an app that provides hands-free control of your smart-phone allowing that allows you to send commands to your phone using EMG signals generated from eyebrow movements.  Normal blue-tooth headsets currently provide limited phone control and some cases; still require the use of hands.  This android application that I developed uses the Neurosky EEG/EMG headset to provide a completely hands-free way of controlling a smartphone using simple eye-brow movements.

 

How it works:

The Sixth Sense app utilizes an inexpensive EEG/EMG recording device from Neruosky. The Neurosky headset has a single wireless electrode that sits on the forehead and reads brain-wave and muscle movement signals. The android application software I developed, receives these signals using Bluetooth communication, stores them and then processes them to decode the intent of the wearer.  The application buffers the signal and applies real time filtering, artifact removal and feature extraction of the signal. The pre-processed signal is then sent to a simple linear classifier to detect the presence of winks and eye-brow movements that represent user intent.  These decoded intents are then used to control the device to perform common tasks such as: making phone calls, sending texts, starting apps, playing music, controlling power-point slides, etc.

 

Current Application Functionality:

 

Voice-Control

There are three control modes for this application. The first is "Voice-control" mode. This mode allows the user to initiate the voice control feature on the phone by quickly raising and lowering the eyebrow. Once the eye-brow movement is detected, the voice-control application starts and awaits a verbal command from the user.  This verbal command can be virtually anything. For example: eyebrow raise + "Call Peter" will call the contact named Peter. Eyebrow raise + "what is the weather today?" will prompt the phone to find and display the local weather. Eyebrow raise + "send text 'where are you?' to Tom" will send a text message to Tom saying 'where are you?', etc. With the EMG initiated voice-control, virtually all aspects of the phone can be controlled in a hands-free manor using the NeuroSky headset.

 

PPT-Control

This control mode will start up the power-point control app. Once synchronized with a host computer, eyebrow movements can be used to scroll through power-point slides. This allows for a very convenient control over power-point slides without having to use a keyboard or hold a remote control.

 

Music-Control

This control mode will start up the phones default music player app. All songs on the phone can be scrolled through on shuffle mode with quick eyebrow raises. This is a very helpful feature for changing songs while driving a car as it provides a safer, hands-free alternative to controlling the music player.

 

NeuroFeedBack

The Neruofeedback mode provides real-time visual feedback of the users EEG/EMG signals. The raw EEG/EMG waveform as well as common brain rhythm levels can be visualized on the screen in real time. Brain rhythms are a key indicator of current brain state of the user. They can be used to indicate the user's level of alertness, drowsiness, concentration, and anxiety for example. By using the neurofeedback feature of this app, the user can learn to train their brain-state by raising and lowering the levels of certain brain rhythms.

 

Application Screen Shots: