Brain Machine Hack Your Brain With Sound Light

Brain Machine: Hack Your Brain With Sound & Light Mitch Altman Chief Scientist, Cornfield Electronics, San Francisco, CA Author of The Brain Machine in MAKE Magazine #10 Inventor of TV-B-Gone universal remote control email: mitch@Cornfield. Electronics. com site: www. Cornfield. Electronics. com Chaos Communications Camp 2007 August 11, 2007

What is a Brain Machine? Photo by Sam Murphy Entrains your brain to a desired brainwave sequence.

Brainwave Types Beta: 13 to 30 Hz Conscious, External Focus Alpha: 8 to 13 Hz Spacey, Dreamy, Receptive, Passive Theta: 4 to 8 Hz Subconscious, Deep Relaxation, Creativity Delta: ½ to 4 Hz Unconscious, Intuition, Insight Gamma: 30 to 100 Hz Not well understood, linked to Perception, Alertness, Anxiety

Brainwave Sequences Same for all healthy adults Example – Meditation: Beta (awake) Alpha (spacey, dreamy) Theta (subconscious) Delta (unconscious, insight) hang out here awhile reverse process come up feeling fabulous

Inventing the Idea What would happen if you played a brainwave sequence? Would your brain synch up? Would you be in the associated state?

Brief history Pulsing Sound in Ancient times: Alpha and Theta induced by ritual drum rhythms Pulsing Light in the 2 nd Century: Ptolemy

Brief history (cont’d) 1920 s: Invention of EEG Hans Berger categorizes brainwave types 1930 s: W. Grey Walter first to knowingly play brainwaves

Brief history (cont’d) 1950 s: Invention of Dream Machine 1970 s: Research, first patent, recordings of brainwave sequences, Monroe Institute

Brief history (cont’d) 1950 s: Invention of Dream Machine 1970 s: Research, first patent, recordings of brainwave sequences, Monroe Institute, Disco

Brief history (cont’d) 1980 s & 1990 s: Medical studies “Megabrain Power” by Hutchison Popularity in mass culture Beneficial claims Are claims real? Why not try it and see? Cautionary note: blinking lights should be avoided by anyone prone to seizures. Certain conditions, such as ADHD, can worsen with Theta and Delta entrainment.

Brief history (cont’d) 2007: Make your own Brain Machine article in MAKE #10

Brief history (cont’d) 2007: Make your own Brain Machine article in MAKE #10 Popular at parties

Motivation for MAKE Brain Machine Cheap Beginner’s project Show fun microcontrollers are Hallucinate wildly without side-effects Trick people into meditating Hack of Ladyada’s Mini. POV kit

Motivation for MAKE Brain Machine Cheap Beginner’s project Show fun microcontrollers are Hallucinate wildly without side-effects Trick people into meditating Easy to program Atmel AVR microcontroller

Binaural Beats An effective means for entraining your brain to sound Somewhat like beat frequencies: Base tone Alpha Offset tone Alpha Beat Frequency

Binaural Beats An effective means for entraining your brain to sound Somewhat like beat frequencies: Base tone Alpha Offset tone Alpha Beat Frequency Except it’s just in your head!

Brain Machine Theory Sound & Light together to create a brainwave sequence Simplified model: one brainwave frequency at a time

Brain Hacking: By pulsing sound & light at brainwave frequencies you can make your brain track any sequence you like

Firmware Initialize everything start Timer #1 with Base Frequency of 400 Hz into speaker #1 Do get next brainwave element from brainwave. Tab (type and duration) start Timer #2 with binaural beat offset frequency into speaker #2 blink LEDs for Left and Right eyes at brainwave frequency for brainwave type wait for the specified duration Until end of brainwave. Table stop Timer #1 and Timer #2 to stop audio at both speakers turn off Left and Right eye LEDs put microcontroller to sleep (low-power mode) Example brainwave. Tab entries: { 'b', 600000 }, { 'a', 100000 },

Hardware

Meditation Here are just a few different ways: • breathe • follow thoughts • focus on an intention (like a problem) • make up your own way

Improvements to Basic Design • Fade the audio in at beginning and especially fade out at the end (gentler). • Fade the lights on and off, rather than blinking at full power (easier on the eyes). • Mask the binaural beats with music or ethereal sounding drones. • Use up to four frequencies at once, one for each brainwave type (enhances entrainment). • Vary the output intensity of each frequency the SLM works with (enhances entrainment). • Use a different colored LED for each brainwave type (enhances entrainment). • Use a differently pitched binaural beat for each brainwave type (enhances entrainment). • Use a more powerful microcontroller (to implement all of the above). • Make multiple brainwave sequences available (e. g. , sleep, meditation, arousal). • Use a wrap-around soft fabric sleep-mask (more comfortable, especially for sleeping). • Use lighter and smaller batteries (more comfortable). I’ll be using a rechargeable battery that is soft and flexible, sewn into the sleep mask