Telepethink PRO 3.2

Telepethink PRO 3.2 is a fictitious brain-computer system (EEG based) designed to challenge issues concerning mind control and brain-computer interface systems.

Telepethink PRO 3.2 is the core of an interactive experience that allow users to enter into a futuristic environment, in which people control their surroundings using their mind rather than their body (I call it, ironically, "The Ultimate Interaction").
But, are they really controlling it? Is it possible that the technology controls them?
This experiment poses several questions that my overall concept relies on: Do they trust the computer’s grasp of their mind, their motivations and thoughts? And why?

My intention is to create an environment in which one is challenged to take an active role in a story and become its protagonist rather than being a passive audience. I hope that by actually being connected by electrodes to a "machine" that reads your brainwaves and trying to control and interact with the piece, people will be provoked to think differently about the implications that this kind of device may create.

In the last few years, ever since becoming involved and surrounded by new technologies, I felt the enormous power they have on my life – how they change my habits and controlling me in a way.

We strive for progress, new inventions; we look for new creative ways to make our lives easier – to be able to control everything by click of a button. We want our computer to recognize us, to communicate with us; we want it to understand us, rather than we understand it. We anthropomorphize it and talk to it and try to influence it with our thoughts.

Particularly, I'm interested in Human Enhancement and the implications of embedding technologies in our body and mind.
In an attempt at coming to terms with the significance that computers have on our lives, I would like to try and imagine what it would be like when computers are smarter than us, faster than us and able to read our mind and our thoughts and even influence them, especially with computers themselves becoming more powerful, smaller and ultimately ubiquitous parts of our lives.

Controlling a computer with one's mind may sound like science fiction, but brain-computer interaction is one of the most rapidly developing areas of modern science. Brain-computer interfaces currently allow users to control prosthetic limbs, type, play simple games and create music. In the near future we will be able to connect to the brain directly to record our dreams, and even backup our thoughts and memories, like having an external hard drive for our brain. With the excitement and possibilities this opens for us to improve our lives, it also raises some of the most interesting questions about mankind.

The OpenEEG project- "EEG for the rest of us!"
Low cost EEG device from Olimex
http://www.olimex.com/gadgets/openeeg.html

Open-source software for biofeedback and EEG analysis
http://openeeg.sourceforge.net/doc/sw/

Joel Garreau. Radical Evolution : The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -and What It Means to Be Human. New York : Doubleday, 2005

Fiona Raby, Anthony Dunne. Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects. London : August ; Basel : Birkhuer, 2001

The Berlin Brain-Computer Interface: Report from the Feedback Sessions.
Benjamin Blankertz, Guido Dornhege, Matthias Krauledat, Klaus-Robert Müller, Gabriel Curio, June 2005.
http://ida.first.fhg.de/publications/BlaDorKraMueCur05.pdf

The Berlin Brain-Computer Interface: towards a new communication channel for on-line control in gaming applications.
Roman Krepki, Benjamin Blankertz, Gabriel Curio, Klaus-Robert Müller
http://ida.first.fhg.de/publications/KreBlaCurMue04.pdf

Ray Kurzweil. The Singularity Is Near : When Humans Transcend Biology. New York : Viking, 2005.

Stelarc - australian performance artist whose work explores and extends the concept of the body and its relationship with technology through human-machine interfaces incorporating medical imaging, prosthetics, robotics, VR systems and the internet. http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/

The Transhumanist Association - an international nonprofit organization which says that humans can and should become more than human through technological enhancements in order to achieve better minds, better bodies and better lives
http://www.transhuman.org/transhistory.htm
http://www.extropy.org/
http://www.transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/index/

Brainball project - by Smart Design
http://smart.tii.se/smart/projects/brainball/index_en.html

Douglas Rushkoff. Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say. New York : Riverhead, 1999.
http://www.rushkoff.com/itp/persuasion.html

Huxley, Aldous. Brave new world. London : Chatto & Windus, 1932.

Rats Control Robot Arm with Brain Power
http://www.robotbooks.com/robot-rats.htm
(Dr John Chapin, of the MCP Hahnemann University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, has shown for the first time that brain cell activity can be used to control a robotic device.)

A living room with an armchair and an old TV set in front of it. On the wall behind the TV there is a video projection.
As the user sits on the armchair an introduction video begins and he is guided to place the Telepethink PRO device on his head.
Then the old TV opens and his brainwaves are being displayed.
The training session begins...

The installation includes an armchair, small coffee table, small tv, speakers and a projector.
The EEG device is connected to a computer running the brainwaves display and showing them on the small TV.
The armcahir is connected to another computer that runs the video and audio (MAX/MSP) that will be shown on the projection behind the TV.
The room has to be quiet, so the instructions can be heard. A far corner of a quiet room, surronded by black fabric, would be an ideal setting. if possible...
Diagram can be found here - http://www.miritt.org/Telepethinkpro/telepethink_diagram_s.jpg