Mind Poetry

Mind Poetry is a small device that reads brain waves using a Mindflex toy head band and flows poetry lines on a small screen as long as you are focused and concentrated.

The values obtained from the headset are: signal strength (should be 0, otherwise values are not reliable), attention (a value from 0 to 100, higher is better), meditation (a value from 0 to 100, higher is better), delta, theta, low alpha, high alpha, low beta, high beta, low gamma, high gamma.

After long periods of trial and error, I've determined that you cannot read peaks of low beta, for example, to detect concentration. It is better to create relationships between the readings.

In the demo you can see one test with EE Cummings (Somewhere I Have) and one with Margaret Atwood (Variation on the Word Sleep).

Poetry lines flows only when the device detects high concentration. In the meanwhile you can see your brain waves in a line chart.

From tech point of view, it wasn’t supposed to be a complicated project but it turned out that working with brain waves required several considerations:

1. Use proper cables (solid copper, 30cm or less)

2. Use an optoisolator (separation between Arduino reception and the Headset signal using led)

3. Disconnect AC (with optoisolator you don't need to do this for security but to get better signal)

The optoisolator requires a small circuit: PC817, 2 LEDs, 1 resistor and I’ve added a switch to avoid draining Mindflex headset batteries.

From programming side, I’ve made a custom line graphic chart with attention, meditation and low beta brain signal.

TikTok

https://www.tiktok.com/@ronibandini/video/7332967589112581381

Other projects

If you are interested in other literature + tech projects please check: animatronics bot in a hacked Furby, BookSound - machine that converts book pages into music and the Literature Dispenser.