OpenBCI Harnessing Brain Signals with chipKIT

Have you heard? OpenBCI (the open-source brain-computer interface) is a community of researchers, engineers, artists, scientists, designers, makers, and more sharing a passion for harnessing the electrical signals of the human brain and body to further understand its complexities.

OpenBCI's 32-bit OpenBCI board---a versatile analog-to-digital converter compatible with any type of electrode---is used to sample electrical brain activity (EEG), muscle activity (EMG), heart rate (EKG), and more. This 8-channel neural interface uses a Microchip PIC32MX250F128B 32-bit processor that comes pre-flashed with the chipKIT bootloader and the OpenBCI System Firmware. The board communicates wirelessly to a computer via the the OpenBCI programmable USB dongle (based on the RFDuino radio module), and it is also able to communicate wirelessly to any mobile device or tablet compatible with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

OpenBCI is supported by an ever-growing, open-source framework of signal processing applications. They chose the open-source format because they believe that ground-breaking discoveries in the field of brain science will benefit more from an open forum of shared knowledge by people from various disciplines than from companies, institutions, or even the entire field of science itself.