Cole P.

Journal entries imported from the previous iteration of wisrd.org

COLE P.

5-22-19

Today is my second-to-last WISRD class of the year. My hope is that I’ll return next year, but only time will tell if that is the case. I was unable to make it to WISRD on Monday due to sickness, so I’m a bit behind on my CV, but I’m confident I’ll finish by tomorrow.

5-17-19

Since my last update, poster presentations and InnovatED.LA have taken place. The stress lab has not yet begun due to software issues with the EPOC Flex and I fear that, with the school year coming to a close, the lab may be put on hold. I have my next WISRD class on Monday of next week, and that will be my third-to-last WISRD class of the school year. My goal for the final three classes is to finish my CV and make a solid plan to start the stress lab first thing next year, since I don’t believe I’ll have enough time to complete it this year.

4-8-19

The EPOC Flex has arrived! This means we’ll be starting the stress lab soon. The only steps we have to take before then is assembly of the Flex and setup for the lab.

3-18-19

The forearm piece for the hand finished printing correctly and we’re in the process of bending it and sanding it to be a perfect fit. The headset has still not arrived, but I have high hopes that it will be here soon.

Also, InnovatED.LA is soon and I’ll most likely be participating in a few booths! One being the brainwaves lab, another being E-Nable, and most likely Math Club as well! It should be very exciting!

3-11-19

We have been working on assembling the hand for a little bit now. Unfortunately, a couple of the parts didn’t print correctly so we are in the process of reprinting them so we can get back to assembly. At this point, the headset is around 2 weeks late and may not arrive before spring break starts, so our lab may be delayed by a little while.

2-21-19

The headset hasn’t yet arrived, so we’ve been filling our time with other projects and working on our writing. Most notably, we’ve been working on assembling an E-Nable prosthetic hand for a man who contacted us a few weeks ago. He has no hand or functioning wrist on his right arm, so we’ve been assembling an elbow-controlled hand for him. This has been a very interesting experience for me since it’s my first time working directly with the 3D-printer and E-Nable.

1-30-19

We’re presenting the proposal to the board next week, hopefully, and after that it’ll take 4 weeks for the new headset to arrive. Since there’s a long time before we can begin our lab, we’ve mostly been writing our white paper and refining the proposal.

1-14-19

We’re currently working on a proposal presentation to show the WISRD Board to get approval to order the new headset we need. The reason we need to create a proposal is because we would be using WISRD funding to pay for the headset and the software that goes with it.

In addition to a proposal, we’re also currently writing a white paper on teen stress and a procedure for our next lab. Our next lab is all about stress in teens and identifying effective coping methods for stress.

1-7-19

Happy New Year! Today is the first day of this year’s second semester, and the Emotiv group has moved away from creating products and we’re now pursuing stress research. Our current headset, the EPOC+, doesn’t work well for what we hope to do, so we’re looking for a new headset that fits our needs better.

11-7-18

Yesterday was the WISRD Fall Poster Presentation. As of yesterday, I fully completed two product prototypes and successfully tested their compatibility with the EPOC+ headset. I completed the stress indicator—a computer controlled speaker that emits a beeping tone that becomes quicker the more stressed the user is—and, with the help of Zach Thomas, my group completed an emotion-indicating “light-board.” These two completed prototypes mean that my group now has a total of three functional products that can be used with the Emotiv headset.

I’ve made very little progress in the GEOFF group because we haven’t yet received the circuit boards from CalTech that we need to complete the exoplanet detector. I’ve been able to give very little help in the writing portion of the project because my role in the group is as an engineer and programmer, but I’ve done what I can.

9-24-18

I am unable to pursue my idea for an ocean/reef project due to a lack of resources and time; however, I have had developments elsewhere. I’ve joined a new project called GEOFF (Ground-based Exoplanet Observatory Focus Facility) that is currently working on the assembly of an exoplanet detector to be used here in WISRD. In Emotiv, we’re currently working on two different projects and we have a new member! Zach Thomas has joined the Emotiv group to assist in engineering and programming.

The Emotiv group is, as of right now, working on two different applications of the headset. We’re using the headset to indicate stress levels through a speaker by increasing the rapidity of a beeping tone the more stressed the wearer of the headset is. The programming of the circuit board that controls the speaker was successful and now all we have to do is test it with the Emotiv headset.

8-22-18

I’m back from summer break for another year of WISRD! This year I plan on expanding on the Emotiv project, I’ll be looking for other applications of the Emotiv headset and improving the method we used to connect the Emotiv headset to the servo motor last year.

I’m also considering starting a project for ocean/reef research and protection because this summer I witnessed firsthand some of the damage thats been done to our ocean’s reefs when i went diving off a Caribbean island called Bonaire. The island was once surrounded by coral reefs but a number of problems have dangerously decreased the amount of living coral on the island’s coasts over the past couple decades.

5-15-18

The past month has been spent slowly printing out the parts for our hand and working on making it as efficient as possible. We’ve been experiencing some trouble with the 3D Printers, so we’re not moving as quickly as we would like. In other news, I proposed an idea for a new department on sound engineering. The primary objective of this department would be to improve modern listening technology such as speakers or headphones. My personal passion for the department, and a possible side objective, is to experiment with musical instruments and possibly develop new instruments.

This will most likely be my last journal for the year, as there is less than a week left of school; however, if we are able to completely finish the assembly of the hand I will update my journal to indicate this.

4-17-18

Since my last journal, we’ve been working to assemble an Emotiv-controlled prosthetic hand that works with an Arduino Uno, bluetooth chip, servo motor, and battery case attached to it and still fits comfortably on a person’s wrist. It has been difficult to maintain a practical size while still fitting all of the components onto the prosthetic, thankfully we seem to have 3D printed a hand that will work well. Will update again soon!

2-28-18

There has been a lot of development with Emotiv in the past month! Earlier this month, we decided to abandon the idea of using the Emotiv to control motors in an RC-car and instead worked towards using the Emotiv to control a servo that moves the fingers of a prosthetic hand. The prosthetic hands being used are E-Nable hands that are 3D-printed in WISRD. The use of Emotiv to control a prosthetic is, without a doubt, a more practical and useful application of the headset than using it to control an RC-car.

The big news is that this past Tuesday, all of the problems we previously faced with getting the Emotiv connected externally were solved and we were able to control a servo motor using our minds! We came up with a method of connection that works as follows: the Emotiv headset connects to Emotiv’s EmoKey software, which allows the wearer to use the headset to control their computer’s keyboard. Then, we used EmoKey to have the Emotiv hit the keys ‘A+ENTER’ whenever the wearer was showing signs of a certain emotion/making different facial expressions. We then programmed an Arduino Uno circuit board to fully rotate a servo motor when A+Enter was hit on the keyboard of the computer it was connected to. When this program was run, we were able to control the servo motor with a variety of different emotions and facial gestures. The practicality of this connection method is not great because it requires a computer to be open and running an Arduino program in order to work. However, it is still a huge step in the right direction, and I look forward to expanding on this project!

1-22-18

An effort is now being made to connect the Emotiv headset to the RC car through multiple programs. The goal is to use an application called Mind Your OSCs to connect the Emotiv Control Panel to a programming application called Processing, which can convert an OSC packet (code) into C++, the language used by Arduino. There has been some trouble connecting the Control Panel to the Mind Your OSCs app because the latest version of Mind Your OSCs isn’t compatible with the latest version of the Control Panel, causing Mind Your OSCs to crash whenever a connection is established. Different ways to connect the Headset to the Arduino are now being looked into.

I found a very useful link that I’ll attach here about Processing with the Emotiv Headset.

11-16-17

The RC car is officially in development! A motor shield has been attached to an Arduino Uno in order to control a servo (a type of motor that is used for precision rotation), which will soon be programmed to receive signals from the Emotiv EPOC+. I’ll most likely be using source code found here and instructions from this document. I will update as soon as I have done something worth writing about.

10-16-17

Since my last journal post, we have abandoned our previous project and have started working on projects that utilize the EPOC+ as a remote controller. We have been working to assemble an RC car connected to and controlled by the Emotiv headset. We plan to 3d print the body and to assemble the electronics from scratch.

During InnovatED.LA, I gave a demonstration of fellow WISRD member Aiden Stern using the EPOC+ to control a digital object in the Emotiv ‘Mental Commands’ program. The demo ended up drawing a good sized crowd relative to the size of the event, which I think expresses the interest people feel for being able to control something just by using their mind. I hope that during the time I spend in WISRD I’ll be able to use the EEG headset to do good things.

9-18-17

My email chain has ended and I am now officially part of the Physiology lab; I have been working with the Emotiv EPOC+, the EEG mentioned in the last update. When I first joined the lab, a project was still being decided on. Then, along with Eli L. and Grace K., the idea to use the Emotiv tech to test reflex was explored.

We are now in the process of writing up a specific plan of action to use the EPOC+ to test the reaction time of persons listening to music of different genres, and see if and how the music affects their reflexes when exposed to certain stimuli. I hope to work on this project in the coming time I’ll spend in WISRD.

I saved the Emotiv3D software on the dumbledore network on the ‘Elphaba’ computer.

8-31-17

This will be my first year in WISRD, and I am looking forward to the coming work I will do. It took a few class periods to get used to the layout of WISRD; it is much different from any other class I have taken.

I would like my main focus to be on projects involving sciences of the brain and mind (Neuroscience, Psychology, Psychiatry, etc.) as well as Philosophy. Currently, I am not concretely involved in any projects, however I have been in an email chain with another member of WISRD to talk about potentially finding a project to involve the use of an EEG.

Bibliography

Arduino Reference Page https://www.arduino.cc/reference/en/

Inspiration for extension prosthetics https://www.daniclodedesign.com/thethirdthumb

Emotiv website https://www.emotiv.com

Tutorial on using speakers with Arduino https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWwqIDTJSPY