Mind Control; Oculus Rift and Parrot AR Drone 2.0+eeg device

[Namielus]

Hi!

I was thinking about the way the Parrot AR Drone keeps itself steady with a powerful processor and IMU's.

You can use the sensor built into an Ipad, Iphone or android device, flip the phone around and the drone flips.

First of all, I thought sending roll pitch and yaw from oculus rift, and having two sticks to control forward backward, up down.
Then simply modify the camera in the drone to be a stereo one with the correct fov, warp, and IPD.

Imagine controlling a drone that lets you fly 50 metres above ground, and you can look around in the world freely. You can go up and down as you please, and forward, turning by simply moving your head. The lag would be there, you would just have to force yourself to do all movement slowly.

So here comes the other part with EEG, I saw a video on youtube controlling parrot ar drone with an eeg-device.

Imagine a paraplegic wearing an eeg+oculus rift connected to a more advanced version of parrot ar drone , lets call it 3.0


Imagine the freedom of movement that paraplegic could experience, and think about how close we are to making this happen.
[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hHRDyeV0TQ[/youtube-hd]

[crespo80]

That's an Emotiv Epoc system, I remember viewing it in 2008 just after the release of the similar consumer OCZ NIA.
These systems are being tested already with people who have to use artificial limbs.

Maybe the concept can be integrated in the rift to be able to move our virtual legs, and only the legs to keep it very simple, so avoiding the need of a threadmill or a "walking on spot" style or similar

[EdZ]

Just a word of warning when it comes to EEG sensors: every cheap 'brain control' game, and low-end headsets with only 2/3 contact points, are almost certainly going to be measuring the muscles in your forehead more than they are any sort of brainwaves, and you need a fairly high sensor count before you can reliably distinguish between anything more than aroused/relaxed state.

[Namielus]

Edz, thanks for the input. I am not speaking about bringing that part to the home , as much as using it to make the life of paraplegics better. So I definitely imagine more advanced equipment.

If they could move around like a bird, I think there is potential for that to be a huge relief for their very limited life and a way for them to just have fun.

There are other ways to implement it that would be usefull too, but you have to agree being able to enjoy yourself and have fun is important?

For the first part of this thread, making use of the head tracking data of the rift, I think thats within reach. Ive seen some stereo cam mods for the parrot ar drone already. Even one mounted with a single gopro.

[StreetRat]

I tried this using OCZs NIA a while ago. Unfortunately i didnt have a big open field to play in and my indoor tests soon ended with damage to my drone.
Was still an interesting experience.
I cant say much about the Emotiv system, but from what i have seen its more concentration based rather than eeg. I know people say the NIA is muscle based rather then eeg, but they both do still report eeg values.
OCZs NIA does have a lot of interference from muscle input aswell.
You can build them sensor caps if your good with electronics, there about $300 to build from memory

Hooking up a moveable camera like some the remote control helicopters / planes have for fly by view, controllable by the Rift while the drone controllable by eeg would be incredible.
And if your hacking it to put a camera on, may as well try for the transmitter mod that allows 2+km range. Then its only battery range thats an issue

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On that note, using any eeg to move around within a game with the Rift on would seem like second nature if done properly. And truly bring in VR. Think to move rather than push button to move.

[Zaptruder]

As far as motion lag goes - one possible solution is to not have the user view slaved directly to the camera system - but rather have the video feed overlaid roughly over the users field of view.

So you can turn your head as much as you want - but if the camera isn't looking at it, you get inky black - the video feed rotates with the rotation of the drone itself as appropriate - if you turn your head slowly enough, you can get them to align.

Alternatively, if you could mount multiple cameras and stitch together the field of view into a 180 degree panaroma - have the user turn their head to see the whole thing... but the 'front' of the videofeed is always aligned with the AR drone cameras.

While I hope the epoc and similar EEG devices will progress really far in the future, at this point in time, from the various impressions I can piece together, its efficacy is still rather lacking. It's certainly not a pick up and play device - requires a good amount of training and calibration to use to its full potential.

I imagine that the drone could be controlled quite well with a standard gamepad though.

[benz145]

Hey Namielus, you inspired me to write up an article!

So that I don't take this off-topic, see here:

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=15452