Via: Aksioma.org
Brainloop is an interactive performance platform that utilizes a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) system, which allows a subject to operate devices merely by imagining specific motor commands.
Motor imagery such as "move left hand", "move right hand" or "move feet" become non-muscular communication and control signals that convey messages and commands to the external world.
In Brainloop, the subject, Markus Rapp, is able - without physically moving - to investigate urban areas and rural landscapes as he globe-trots around virtual Google Earth.
Through motor imagery, he selects locations, camera angles and positions and records these image sequences in a virtual world. In the second half of the performance, he plays back the sequence and uses Brainloop to compose a custom soundtrack by selecting and manipulating audio recordings in real time, as sound designer Brane Zorman re-locates them (5.1 surround) into the physical space.
This work results from a multi-year collaboration between Slovenian media artists and Austrian scientists. Its author is the Slovenian media artist Davide Grassi. Responsible for the BCI application is Reinhold Scherer from the BCI-Lab of the TUG.
Brainloop has been awarded with the ARCO/BEEP Electronic Art Prize (category Off-ARCO) at ARCO 07, Madrid, Spain.
BCI - Brain–Computer Interfaces
The aim is to provide the brain with a new, non-muscular communication and control channel, a direct brain–computer interface for conveying messages and commands to the external world.
A variety of methods for monitoring brain activity might serve as a BCI.
The methods taken in consideration are the Electroencephalography (EEG) and related methods which are non-invasive, have relatively short time constants, can function in most environments, and require relatively simple and inexpensive equipment.
The methods taken in consideration are the Electroencephalography (EEG) and related methods which are non-invasive, have relatively short time constants, can function in most environments, and require relatively simple and inexpensive equipment.