[johnnybaptist]

I work at OpenBCI. It's been great getting to work with Gabe and the Valve team. Can't overstate how unique they are as partners on a project like this. Also cool to see OpenBCI (sortof) in the top 10 today :)

Happy to answer any questions people have about OpenBCI https://openbci.com/

[farias0]

What is the timeframe you imagine for us to see the first consumer BCI-based products?

Gabe seems to talk a lot about "inserting" data (like feelings) into the brain, instead of reading it. Is the technology really there already? Can we reliably read data from the brain (i.e. using it as input for a digital system)? And regarding inserting, what is the coolest thing you've done that you can share with us?

[johnnybaptist]

Right now, OpenBCI makes products that only handle the "read" side of the equation.

As far as "writing" back into the brain, the coolest thing I've seen was the "BrainNet" project from University of Washington which used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

https://www.washington.edu/news/2019/07/01/play-a-video-game...

The science and tech is advancing very fast, but I think it's not accurate enough to be in everyday use yet as a controller for devices. 90% accuracy sounds great in a paper, but imagine if your mouse clicks or keystrokes didn't register 1 out of 10 times.

What feels way more likely is that we'll see biometric data being collected by more consumer tech devices (cellphones, laptops, headphones) and used as one of many inputs to improve software applications and operating systems. Could EMG or EEG data be used to improve iOS autocorrect and reduce fat finger mistakes? That's a mundane application for crazy tech, but it's the kind of thing that I think will be a necessary intermediate step in us learning how to use these types of signals in everyday ways.

[tashoecraft]

Considering I own Neurosity's Notion: https://neurosity.co/, which is a consumer BCI based product, I'd say a couple years ago.

[Scipio_Afri]

Do you like it? Where is the science backing up it's ability to keep you focused?

[darkwolf4999]

I don't know much about the tech, but I'm curious if neural networks and/or machine learning is used to process data and find connections, correlations, or...cool stuff like that? I just think machine learning is neat man, and bio tech is also very neat. The two together....super neat...haha.

I know the example they put out, a horror game that responds to your fears by reading the data you produce. Is the tech actually at a point were a dedicated team can accurately and consistently identify bio markers correlated with a fear response? Or diffrentiate between fear, anger, happiness, etc?

Has there been any research into using this tech effectively to treat anxiety/depression? Really interested in this focus once "writing" information is possible, especially with more severe mental health issues that aren't related to physical brain deterioration. But it seems (per your comments) that that's still a ways a way, haha. Would be really cool to be able to see a psychatrist and have them treat my anxiety with a few bip bops from an industrial headset, or go home with a prescription program to run once a day, that just sounds like science fiction.

[mentos]

I often wonder about the parallels between reverse engineering games using memory inspection software like 'cheat engine' to trying to reverse engineer the brain using a BCI.

For example if you want to find the memory address for your guns ammo you search for a start value in memory say '30', get all addresses that match that value, fire the gun and then find which of those addresses now have the value 29. Continue the search until you narrow down the memory address to just one. Then you can use that address to query the ammo for a 3rd party program that alerts you that you're low on ammo or even write to the memory address to give yourself more ammo..

Obviously the brain isn't as discrete but I feel like if I could play around with a BCI I could find fun signals for when I'm thinking about 'apples' vs 'oranges' and slowly build up an interface.

Have you been able to use a BCI to detect when you're thinking about something specific?

[mattkrause]

There's a huge chunk of neuroscience devoted to questions like this.

Several groups have shown that they can "decode" a remembered image from brain activity. This is comparatively easy when the images are simple and there are only a few possibilities, but can generalize to larger sets of images and even (sort of) never-before-seen ones. Sensory and motor information is relatively accessible; I don't know that anyone's making great progress decoding thoughts like "I should be home by 8pm".

If this is up your alley, you may want to check out work done by Frank Tong's lab at Princeton (e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1808230/) or Jack Gallant's group at UC Berkley (e.g, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105381191...), among others.

[throwaway3699]

I thought about buying an OpenBCI kit to try something like this, but I think there's just not enough sensor resolution to get anything meaningful in the way you're suggesting. The strongest signals by far come from muscle movement, too, so that tends to be the basis of interfaces.

(FWIW: absolutely not an expert)

[andygmb]

In the area of BCI, what is the most "Science-Fictiony" thing you have seen made into a reality?

[johnnybaptist]

I referenced this in my other reply, but this is one of the ones that blew my mind:

https://www.washington.edu/news/2019/07/01/play-a-video-game...