Ryna Hall's "Mind-Controlled" Drone Reads a NeuroSky MindWave Headset via JavaScript
Despite only offering 0-100 "attention" and "meditation" values, the MindWave proves capable of providing gross drone control.
Developer Ryna Hall has showcased a JavaScript project which turns thoughts into remote control signals for an off-the-shelf drone — effectively flying the device via "mind control."
"I have a NeuroSky MindWave headset on my head," Hall explains. "The headset is designed to measure attention and meditation from your prefrontal cortex. So the headset gives me my attention and meditation values on a scale from 0-100. For the first 50 data grabs I average the 2 values."
"After that anytime it goes above the average I add 1 to either focus count or meditation count. And if it goes below i set the respective one back to 0. I use these counts to control the drone. I have a focus count above 4, I take off. Above 6 I move forward. Meditation count above 4, I move backwards, and above 6 I land and close the program."
Built around a JavaScript core — "It's the language I know best," Hall says — with the mindwave and ar-drone libraries, the application triggers remote control signals to an off-the-shelf Parrot AR.Drone 2.0.
The source code has been published to GitHub under an unspecified open source license.