Emotiv Experimenter

1 Abstract This report describes the development and features of Experimenter, an application based on the EEG capabilities of the Emotiv EPOC headset. As a research tool, Experimenter allows a variety of experiments based on classic stimulus-presentation paradigms to be run using the Emotiv. Unlike most EEG setups, however, Experimenter not only records data but also attempts online analysis and classification of the incoming data stream. With the proper experimental setup, then, Experimenter can be used as a simple mind-reading application. Experiment and application design, sample procedures, classification techniques, results, and technical details are discussed. This thesis represents my own work in accordance with university regulations. This report begins with a general overview of EEG (4.1) and previous work with the Emotiv headset (4.2 and 4.3). It then goes on to describe the Experimenter application itself. This includes a detailed description of the basic experiment format (5.3) and a summary of application functionality from the perspective of a user (5.4.2). The software design section (5.4.3) contains technical details regarding Experimenter's implementation; this section is intended primarily for those who might wish to extend Experimenter or to build their own applications using Emotiv. The experiments section (6) describes specific experiments run as part of the current project, and contains instructions for implementing these experiments using the Experimenter application. The data analysis section details considerations and techniques for working with Emotiv's EEG data (7.1) as well as various machine learning algorithms which were used for classification (7.2). This is followed by a summary of the results of applying this analysis to various collected data sets (8). Finally, I comment on my experience using the Emotiv headset (9.1) as well as future directions for this work (9.2). The walkthrough in appendix B (12.2) provides a visual tutorial for aspiring users of Experimenter, while the documentation in appendix C (12.3) is aimed at providing further assistance to developers. The Emotiv EPOC headset is a cheap and easy-to-use mass-market EEG recording device. Targeted at video gamers, Emotiv promises to add a new dimension to the gaming experience by Adelson 5 providing brain-computer interface (BCI) functionalities. Emotiv's simplicity has also attracted the interest of neuroscientists. Unlike traditional EEG setups and functional MRI, the Emotiv headset offers the possibility of running inexpensive experiments from the comfort of one's laptop. In the interest of exploiting these capabilities, I developed Experimenter, an application which can be used to collect …