Tuesday 3 June 2014

Looking forward to @EmotivInsight for self-determined learning


Brainwear that would enable enhanced learning monitoring? Oh, I would love to get my hands on that, so I immediately registered for the Emotiv Insight headset that is said to come out around summertime 2014 (new release date April 2015).

The US based design teams who wanted to work with the Emotiv Insight headset got together during a Designathon in February 2014, which led to 20 projects being selected that could promote an innovative use of the upcoming Emotiv Insight headset. No European event set up as yet it seems. The inventor is Tan Le, an Australian innovator with a growing impact and interest. Tan Le and her team have been working towards the emotiv insight brainwear for years, a first notion of this type of headset was featured in a Ted Talk of 2010, which already featured the Epoc headset that allowed users to move objects in the virtual world. 

So, waiting patiently for any message from the Emotiv team coming my way. In the meantime, let me share why I find this bit of brain gear of interest for research and (online) learning. The basic set up is: a portable EEG that allows the user of the brain-wear to better understand their own brain functions (all be it, brainwaves), which can be connected to focus, state of creativity, suggestions (telekinetics), and such.
The nice hook of the Emotiv Insight headset being developed, is that its predecessor the Emotiv Epoc can now be bought for less money (if you add the promotional code mentioned on Tan Le's Facebook page - Emotiv-FB-14  for a 100$ discount on the Epoc).  

Practically, what does it say it can do: 
"Emotiv Insight is a sleek, 5 channel, wireless headset that records your brainwaves and translates them into meaningful data you can understand. Designed for everyday use, Insight has advanced electronics that are fully optimised to produce clean, robust signals any time, anywhere. We've also developed cutting edge, dry polymer sensors that give you the same great electrical conductivity without the setup or saline"

You just pop the headset on your skull, and you can start monitor your brainwaves, and from their build options to either research your brainwaves, use them to guide objects, or simply look at what specific emotions trigger in your brain. The Emotiv Insight was funded through Kickstarter and reached well over its target funds. And I must agree that I wished I had known about this a couple of months ago, as the research Insight gear set could be bought for 399$ through Kickstarter (really sorry I missed this opportunity!). 

Would love to get my hands on an Emotiv Insight brainset, as it would allow me to test out the research SDK and investigate learning patterns connected to informal learning, procrastination, creation, knowledge resolution... Would need to dig into the SDK, but I can see how this might link in with the Quantified/qualified input I was looking for in a previous post. 

Nice stuff it seems.

No comments:

Post a Comment