HEGduino V2 Is a New and Improved Biofeedback Kit with Heart Rate and Temperature Monitoring
AlasKit's ESP32-based headset provides low-cost home brain training and research-grade cerebral blood flow monitoring.
We've already seen a successful crowdfunding campaign for the HEGduino V1, which was capable of measuring blood and oxygen levels in the brain. After about a year or so, the AlasKit team has come up with the next iteration that adds heart rate and temperature monitoring along with home brain training and research-grade cerebral blood flow monitoring as well.
Similar to V1, this headband biofeedback kit is built around an ESP32 breakout board running at 240MHz with 4MB flash memory. Beyond that, the breakout board supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and features customizable firmware via Arduino and Espressif IDEs.
With its minimalistic design, the hardware packs a Maxim Integrated MAX86141 pulse oximeter ADC. This could be the best choice for AlasKit as it provides 2x4096 SPS simultaneous sensing, which is much more than its predecessor. Overall, the device looks very promising with all the capabilities to run several various hardware streams like EEG and HEG on the new platform.
On the software side, AlasKit is partnering with the Brains@Play BCI platform to developer neurofeedback experiences for home use. Among other features, AlasKit's new platform supports multiple simultaneous users, remote streaming, GPU-accelerated real-time signal analysis and visualization, as well as various types of concurrent hardware streams, including EEG, HEG, and streams from novel devices like Neosensory.
HEGduino V2 is current funding on Crowd Supply. If you are interested in supporting the project, the base MAX86141 FNIRS breakout board is priced at $35 while the headset at $80 with delivery slated for September 22nd, 2021.