Here’s how we developed a Brain-Computer Interface(BCI) implementation to control a rover with just your thoughts, i.e., with a raw stream of real-time EEG data. A BCI is a device that translates neuronal information from the cerebral area of the brain into data capable of controlling external software or hardware such as a computer or a robotic limb. BCIs are often used as assisted living devices for individuals with motor or sensory impairments. BCIs are of two classes: Invasive methods and Non-Invasive methods. Invasive BCIs are electrodes that are implanted either inside the subject’s brain or on the surface of the brain through surgical means, for reading high quality signals, whereas generally Non-Invasive BCIs are electrodes that are worn over the surface of the head and placed along the scalp, to read feeble EEG signals and thus do not require surgery. EEG or ( measures voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current within the neurons of the brain. electroencephalogram signals) Non-invasive EEG-based BCIs are portable, easy to use, and able to acquire signals in real-time, which is feasible to achieve brain-actuated control. For this project, we use a commercially available EEG-based BCI device called the Emotiv Insight. It provides 5-channels (i.e., 5 electrodes to pick up signals from the surface of head) which is sufficient for this build. Emotiv Insight, a portable EEG reader The Emotiv Insight connects to the computer via bluetooth, and is provided with a native API to access the EEG signals being read from the subject’s brain. 5 channels of EEG waves read from the test subject Using the API we can train the Insight to correspond or map the EEG data being read to the labels such as ‘Move Forward’, ‘Turn Left’ and ‘Turn Right’. For example, when training the Insight to learn the command ‘Move Forward’, we think about accelerating the rover, so that it corresponds EEG signals being produced at the time as the label ‘Move Forward’. Once the training for these mental commands is done, the device learns to recognise these commands when we are thinking about them. System Architecture We are going to use a very straightforward architecture, which is comprised of the four components described below. which is the Emotiv Insight. It picks up the EEG signals from the subject and sends them to the connected computer as raw vectorised data. The EEG device to connect with the Emotiv Insight via bluetooth and communicate through the Emotiv’s API. The API (which is built on JSON and WebSockets) provides access to EEG data and also supports training and recognition of mental commands. The documentation for the API can be obtained from the . The final code is provided and explained below, so we can skip documentation for now. A computer Emotiv Documentation page that listens to requests (i.e., commands such as ‘move forward’, ‘turn left’, etc.) from the computer and sends the corresponding signals to the rover, where these requests are acted upon. The actions are the movement commands for the rover. It is written in using the Flask web framework, and hosted in the rover’s Raspberry Pi computer. A Server Raspberry Pi 3 The Raspberry Pi not only makes for an extremely cheap Linux computer, it also makes for a excellent bridge between the language and robotics. Python programming , which is a very simple build comprising of a metallic body, four wheels, four electric motors, an H-bridge, portable phone battery, and a Raspberry Pi 3 computer. The main focus here is on the and the server code that goes in it. Each wheel is connected to its own motor and all the four motors are connected to the H-bridge. The H-bridge makes connections to the GPIO pins of the Pi which are controlled via the server by making requests by any remote device. A Rover Raspberry Pi Top and bottom view of the rover Talk is cheap. Show me the code. The codes below are available in a GitHub repo as well: [ ] prajwalgatti/EEG_Controlled_Rover Server Code This Python 3 script makes for the server code which is hosted on the Rover’s Raspberry Pi. It is meant to listen for, and receive commands to control the rover. from flask import Flaskimport RPi.GPIO as gpioimport time Let us go into detail about these libraries being imported. In line 1, we import . Flask is a web framework written in Python. Flask In line 2, we import . This package provides a class to control the GPIO (general-purpose input/output) channels on the Raspberry Pi. RPi.GPIO In line 3, we import the library, used here to add delays during the execution of the code. time app = Flask(__name__)tf=0.8 def init():gpio.setmode(gpio.BOARD)gpio.setup(7, gpio.OUT)gpio.setup(11, gpio.OUT)gpio.setup(13, gpio.OUT)gpio.setup(15, gpio.OUT) We create , an instance of class . app Flask Next, we have an function, which stands for initialisation. The init function sets up all of the GPIO pins that we are using. init() # Move rover forward@app.route(‘/forward’)def forward():init()gpio.output(7, False)gpio.output(11, True)gpio.output(13, True)gpio.output(15, False)time.sleep(tf)gpio.cleanup()return ‘moved forward’ # Pivot rover to the left@app.route(‘/pivot_left’)def pivot_left():init()gpio.output(7, True)gpio.output(11, False)gpio.output(13, True)gpio.output(15, False)time.sleep(tf)gpio.cleanup()return ‘pivoted left’ # Pivot rover to the right@app.route(‘/pivot_right’)def pivot_right():init()gpio.output(7, False)gpio.output(11, True)gpio.output(13, False)gpio.output(15, True)time.sleep(tf)gpio.cleanup()return ‘pivoted right’ Next, we define our forward, pivot left and pivot right functions. What these functions are going to do is initiate the proper changes in the GPIO pins to make the wheels go either forward, left or right, depending on our goals. Finally, after defining our functions, we call a quick , then ask the forward and reverse functions to run for 0.8 seconds. After this, we use to cease the pins from being activated. init() gpio.cleanup() We use the decorator to tell Flask what URL should trigger our function. route() if __name__ == ‘__main__’:app.run(debug=True, host=’0.0.0.0') If you run the script you will notice that the server is only accessible from your own computer, not from any other device in the network. This is the default because in debugging mode a user of the application can execute arbitrary Python code on your computer. If you have debug disabled or trust the users on your network, you can make the server publicly available simply by changing the call of the method to look like the above line. run() Make sure that your HTTP server is listening on (in my case) or everywhere ( ). 192.168.0.8:5000 0.0.0.0:5000 EEG Control Code This is written in Python 3 and uses several libraries to communicate with the Emotiv’s API. This code is run on the host computer which has the API access. Let us import all the required packages and libraries to establish a connection with the Insight. # Importing the packages and the libraries from credentials import *import jsonfrom websocket import create_connectionimport sslimport timeimport requests Let us see what each of the above packages are needed for. In line 1, we’ve imported all the contents of which is just another python file in which we store all the required credentials for the API access ( , , and ). credentials.py _auth client_secret client_id In line 2, we’ve imported the json library. The API uses JSON to make requests and get back the results, so we require the functions of json library to handle data being received and sent to the API. In line 3, we’ve imported the function to create a web socket connection from the websocket library. WebSockets provide a real-time connection to the underlying API service, designed to be easy to use in both desktop and web-based applications. In line 4, we’ve imported the ssl library or “Secure Socket Layer” library. This module provides access to Transport Layer Security (often known as “ssl”) encryption and peer authentication facilities for network sockets, both client-side and server-side. In line 5, we’ve imported the time library, used in this script to add time delays during the execution of the code. In line 6, we’ve imported the requests library. allows you to send HTTP requests easily from the python script. Requests Let’s create an object of the class below. create_connection ws = create_connection(“wss://emotivcortex.com:54321”, sslopt={“cert_reqs”: ssl.CERT_NONE}) The Cortex API service listens on port . This means we can connect to it using the url . 54321 wss://emotivcortex.com:54321 Now, let’s open an active session with the Emotiv. ws.send(json.dumps({“jsonrpc”: “2.0”,“method”: “createSession”,“params”: {“_auth”: _auth,“headset”:”INSIGHT-5A688F16",“status”: “open”},“id”: 1})) print(ws.recv()) We are sending data to the Emotiv’s websocket server using and receiving data from it using function. The data being sent here is a JSON request to the API, asking it to create a session using the method. To send it in the string format, we use . The request and its content isn’t really something we need to break our heads over, it’s just a piece of code we get from the API’s documentation page for creating a session, that’s all. The data received back from the server should be printed on to the terminal. ws.send() ws.recv() [createSession](https://emotiv.github.io/cortex-docs/#createsession) json.dumps() Furthermore, we need to subscribe to the system stream. ws.send(json.dumps({“jsonrpc”: “2.0”,“method”: “subscribe”,“params”: {“_auth”:_auth,“streams”:[“sys”]},“id”: 1})) print(ws.recv()) To actually receive data from a session, you have to “subscribe” to it. This is done using the method. Along with the session you want to subscribe to, you have to specify which streams you are interested in. We use stream here to set up training for the mental commands. [subscribe](https://emotiv.github.io/cortex-docs/#subscribe) sys Let’s begin training! ws.send(json.dumps( {“jsonrpc”: “2.0”,“method”: “training”,“params”: {“_auth”:_auth,“detection”:”mentalCommand”,“action”:”neutral”,“status”:”start”},“id”: 1})) print(ws.recv())time.sleep(5)print(ws.recv())time.sleep(10)print(ws.recv()) Here we start training the mental commands, beginning with the “neutral” state. Training is initiated by calling the method and specifying the action as and status as . We should receive a response specifying " ", followed by " " and then " " a few seconds later. The delay in these responses are handled using the function. training neutral start Set up training successfully for action neutral with status start MC_Started MC_Succeeded time.sleep() tells us that the training for neutral command has been successful. Upon receiving the MC_Started response The subject wearing the Emotiv Insight should stay very still, imagining the neutral command so the device registers it correctly. MC_Succeeded ws.send(json.dumps( {“jsonrpc”: “2.0”,“method”: “training”,“params”: {“_auth”:_auth,“detection”:”mentalCommand”,“action”:”neutral”,“status”:”accept”},“id”: 1})) print(ws.recv())time.sleep(2)print(ws.recv()) If we’re satisfied with the data we’ve trained, we need to send a request to accept it as the neutral command. We’ve successfully trained the neutral mental command. We repeat the same steps as above for the rest of the mental commands: (move rover forward), (rotate rover left), and (rotate rover right), by changing the parameter each time, as shown below. push left right action ws.send(json.dumps( {“jsonrpc”: “2.0”,“method”: “training”,“params”: {“_auth”:_auth,“detection”:”mentalCommand”,“action”:”push”,“status”:”start”},“id”: 1})) print(ws.recv())time.sleep(5)print(ws.recv())time.sleep(10)print(ws.recv()) ws.send(json.dumps( {“jsonrpc”: “2.0”,“method”: “training”,“params”: {“_auth”:_auth,“detection”:”mentalCommand”,“action”:”push”,“status”:”accept”},“id”: 1})) print(ws.recv())time.sleep(2)print(ws.recv()) Training for . Subject imagines the thought ‘move rover forward’ during training. push ws.send(json.dumps( {“jsonrpc”: “2.0”,“method”: “training”,“params”: {“_auth”:_auth,“detection”:”mentalCommand”,“action”:”left”,“status”:”start”},“id”: 1})) print(ws.recv())time.sleep(5)print(ws.recv())time.sleep(10)print(ws.recv()) ws.send(json.dumps( {“jsonrpc”: “2.0”,“method”: “training”,“params”: {“_auth”:_auth,“detection”:”mentalCommand”,“action”:”left”,“status”:”accept”},“id”: 1})) print(ws.recv())time.sleep(2)print(ws.recv()) Training for . Subject imagines the thought ‘rotate rover left’ during training. left ws.send(json.dumps( {“jsonrpc”: “2.0”,“method”: “training”,“params”: {“_auth”:_auth,“detection”:”mentalCommand”,“action”:”right”,“status”:”start”},“id”: 1})) print(ws.recv())time.sleep(5)print(ws.recv())time.sleep(10)print(ws.recv()) ws.send(json.dumps( {“jsonrpc”: “2.0”,“method”: “training”,“params”: {“_auth”:_auth,“detection”:”mentalCommand”,“action”:”right”,“status”:”accept”},“id”: 1})) print(ws.recv())time.sleep(2)print(ws.recv()) Training for . Subject imagines the thought ‘rotate rover right’ during training. right And just like that, we’ve finished the training processes for the required mental commands. Now the script should be able to tell you which of the four trained commands you’re thinking about. ws.send(json.dumps({“jsonrpc”: “2.0”,“method”: “subscribe”,“params”: {“_auth”:_auth,“streams”:[“com”]},“id”: 1})) print(ws.recv()) To obtain the stream of commands we call the method and subscribe to the stream, which allows for a stream of mental commands to be read from the headset. While subscribed, you will receive events asynchronously as data comes in. subscribe com A single data received from the stream would look like this: {"com":["push",0.673717498779297],"sid":"46d18597-7034-40ab-9d6e-d617a89a24ce","time":245.356536865234} So parsing the data received from the stream is imperative for a clean, readable output. while True: thought = json.loads(ws.recv())[“com”][0]print(thought) if(thought == “push”):url_get = “http://192.168.0.8:5000/forward"res = requests.get(url_get)elif(thought == “left”):url_get = “http://192.168.0.8:5000/pivot_left"res = requests.get(url_get)elif(thought == “right”):url_get = “http://192.168.0.8:5000/pivot_right"res = requests.get(url_get) To receive the stream of commands being read, we loop the function. Now to relay the commands being read to the server hosted on the Raspberry Pi (which controls the rover), we make requests to the corresponding URLs. ws.recv() The URLs when requested, call the corresponding functions in the server code for the commands and hence activate the necessary GPIO pins in the Raspberry PI to facilitate the movement of the rover. Setup of the project Further Reading & More Interesting Things Elon Musk’s Neuralink by Vsauce The Electric Brain — Mind Field https://twitter.com/Venkatesh_ofi/status/1005776374995476480 If you have any thoughts, or questions, comment below or send me an email: prajwalgatti126@gmail.com, or tweet me . @prajwal_gatti This post and project was co-developed with , mail him at venkateshtata9@gmail.com. Venkatesh Tata Suggest something or create an issue at [ ] prajwalgatti/EEG_Controlled_Rover
