CHAPTER 10 On Mapping EEG Information into Music Joel Eaton and Eduardo

With the rise of ever-more affordable EEG equipment available to musicians, artists and researchers, designing and building a Brain-Computer Music Interface (BCMI) system has recently become a realistic achievement. This chapter discusses previous research in the fields of mapping, sonification and musification in the context of designing a BCMI system and will be of particular interest to those who seek to develop their own. Design of a BCMI requires unique considerations due to the characteristics of the EEG as a human interface device (HID). This chapter analyses traditional strategies for mapping control from brain waves alongside previous research in bio-feedback musical systems. Advances in music technology have helped provide more complex approaches with regards to how music can be affected and controlled by brainwaves. This, paralleled with developments in our understanding of brainwave activity has helped push braincomputer music interfacing into innovative realms of real-time musical performance, composition and applications for music therapy.