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In Bidirectional-Binaural Beats two the brainwaves of two participants are read using two NeuroSky Mindset headsets. The readings coming from each headset are analyzed and converted into 'binaural beats', a stereo audio signal that uses the interference patterns of the left and right stereo channels within the listener's head to attempt to induce a certain mental state. The binaural beats generated by each user's brainwaves are output on their partner's headphones in an attempt to swap, or sync the user's brainwaves.
In Mental Landscapes, raw EEG data is sent through a FFT algorithm to determine it's frequency components. These components are visualized as different 3D landscapes, with the X axis representing frequency bands, the Y axis representing the amount of each frequency, and the Z axis representing time. Similarly, each of the EEG bands are converted into the amplitude of 50 different Sine wave oscillators spread throughout the audible spectrum.
Neuro-Sky-chiatry highlights the uncertainties and arbitrariness inherent in assigning human behaviour to categories of brain wave frequencies. Brain waves are divided into five different types according to their frequencies: Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. Each of these categories, in turn, is associated with a variety of human behaviours that can differ widely even within a single brainwave type. Delta waves, for example, can be generated when a person is sleeping, or performing a continuous attention task, or, according to one source, when they are having an out-of-body experience. Similarly, a brain can generate Beta waves when a person is active, or anxious, or having warm loving thoughts. In other words, there is no way to determine precisely what a person is doing or thinking purely by observing a biometric read-out of their brainwaves.
We surveyed a number of neurobiology texts and websites, collecting a list of behaviours associated with each category of brainwave frequency. We then devised scripts and fed them into a digital psychiatry program that tells participants what they must be thinking or doing according to the brainwave frequencies indicated in their Neuro-Sky read-out. Each participant receives a series of analyses and recommendations based on measurements of their brainwave frequencies, as well as an image of what their brain activity looks like. The result is an arbitrary, and often humorous, reflection of the vagaries of the "science" of reading brainwaves.
The software application for Neuro-Sky-Chiatrist was written in the Processing programming language, and utilizes a custom library (created by Rob King) to extract data from the Neurosky headset in real-time. The basic sequence of the program is as follows:
