Brain-Computer Interface Plays Music Based on Person's Mood
From: The Engineer (UK) - 12/06/2011
By: Sam Shead 

A brain-computer interface (BCI) that plays music based on the mental state
of the user is the focus of a new four-year project by researchers at the
universities of Reading and Plymouth. "When we perform some cognitive
functions our brain generates lots of electrical activity, which can be
recognized as fluctuations of tiny electrical potentials using non-invasive
techniques," says Reading University's Slawomir Nasuto. "If you can record
these fluctuations and recognize what kind of activity is going on, a control
command for a computer ... could be provided." The researchers say the BCI
will be unique in that the user will not have complete control over how the
system responds, and it will recognize the mental state of the user and
provide the right stimulus. An electroencephalograph will be used to transfer
the electrical signal from the user's scalp via a series of wires to an
amplifier box, which will be connected to a computer. The team will use
software to identify rules governing musical patterns that produce certain
emotions, and embed the rules into the BCI system to generate the music, says
Plymouth University professor Eduardo Miranda. The BCI system could serve as
a therapeutic aid in treating depression. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/sectors/medical-and-healthcare/news/brain-computer-interface-plays-music-based-on-persons-mood/1011153.article

Links:
Thought-provoking technology makes music with mind power
http://www.edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/03/29/music.brain.power.therapy/index.html

Mind-powered instrument lets paralysis victims create music (with video :54)
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-03/30/mind-powered-musical-instrument

Slawomir Nasuto
http://www.reading.ac.uk/sse/about/staff/s-j-nasuto.aspx

Eduardo Miranda
http://neuromusic.soc.plymouth.ac.uk/
http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/emiranda

Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research
http://cmr.soc.plymouth.ac.uk/

Music is all in the mind
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110318/full/news.2011.113.html

Mental ping-pong could aid paraplegics
http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040827/full/news040823-18.html