Hi my name is Ethan and I am a rising junior at Monta Vista High School. My starter project was a brain machine kit that helped you hallucinate while meditating. My main project is a student defined project that combines the EKG heart rate monitor and the EEG brain monitor into one LCD display. I really enjoy programming and building new things and I hope to learn a lot about coding and building circuits especially since I don’t have much experience with building circuits. Outside of programming I do a variety of extra curricular activities including Track and Field, Karate, and Piano. I also like to read and play puzzle games in my spare time to open my mind and challenge my self a little bit. From this camp I really hope to expand my knowledge and learn how to work with, create, and draw schematics for circuits.
Main Project – EEG and EKG combined LCD display
Python Code: http://codeviewer.org/view/code:5352
Arduino Code: http://codeviewer.org/view/code:537a
Bill of Materials: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_ROBfJAgIXfprdLazdgbmikzBIZ3hWsDxBXlKBoT4jc/edit?usp=sharing
Schematic: http://postimg.org/image/gswith6f5/
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Final Project
Hi it’s Ethan again and I have finished up my final project. In this final project, I have improved the emotion processing. I have improved it by processing your emotions based also on one’s heart rate instead of just the brain waves. I did this by writing a piece of Arduino script that could parse the int values and store them as variables in an int array. This way I would be able to process the brain waves and heart rate in the Arduino script instead of only being able to process the brain waves in the Python code.
While changing and improving the processing, I encountered some problems. The first one was a problem similar to the one I had in the second milestone which was a problem with the LCD display. I was able to fix this problem by re-configuring the delays I used before so that they would sync up the new processing. In this new processing I got rid of the Meditation and Attention levels and improved the emotion levels specifically.
After this program I plan to work on improving the processing by including a temperature sensor in order to detect body temperature. Based on the rising or cooling of the body temperature, I wish to be able to more precisely detect emotions. Overall I felt that this was a very opening experience because I learned a lot about coding and hardware and had a lot of fun.
Final Project:
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Milestone 2
Hi it’s Ethan again and I am happy to say that I have finished my second milestone. In this second milestone, I have built my EKG and displayed the data from the EKG to the LCD screen while displaying the data from my EEG at the same time. From my first milestone until now I have encountered many problems.
The first problem was that my EKG was faulty and didn’t always work properly. I found that the problem was caused by interference coming from the environment and interfering with my circuit because I did not trim my wires and resistors. Furthermore, I accidentally swapped the two electrolytic capacitors. After fixing this I was able to get my EKG running properly.
Then I worked on a piece of Arduino code that could write to and LCD screen based on the information being written to the Arduino serial monitor. This went relatively smoothly until I tried making both the EEG and EKG codes run together. This caused a very major issue because while I ran both codes, only the EEG portion worked while the EKG didn’t work and kept displaying that I was dead. I was able to fix this problem by utilizing a series of delays to synchronize the data being displayed from the EEG and EKG so that they both displayed proper values.
EKG:
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Milestone 1
Hi it’s Ethan again and I am happy to say that I have just completed my first milestone. My project is an EKG and EEG combined monitor. In this project I combined the processed data received from the EKG and EEG into a single LCD monitor. From the start of the project until now I have encountered many different problems. The most annoying one being the connectivity issues of the NeuroSky headset with my computer. After much research and contact with the developers of the NeuroSky headset, I realized that the problem was my operating system, so I moved from my Windows 8.1 computer to a windows 7 computer which was compatible with the NeuroSky Mindwave mobile headset.
Later, as I was coding some programs to interpret and read the data, I encountered another problem which was another compatibility issue between the python bluetooth module and my version of python. In order to fix this problem I created a virtual machine to run Linux and setup everything there and was able to code all my programs properly there.
The last major problem I encountered was an Arduino problem with my Linux virtual machine because, at first, I was unable to write to Arduino’s serial monitor with my python script. I was able to get around this problem by uploading code to the Arduino that didn’t perform any actions using my windows computer and execute the code on the Linux computer. This way I was able to write data to the Arduino serial monitor. The next time we meet I hope to have completed the EKG.
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Starter Project-Brain Machine Kit
My starter project was a brain relaxing machine kit from Adafruit. This brain machine utilizes lights and sounds to relax the brain and mind. In this project, I used a circuit board, pre-programmed micro-controller, an 8 bit socket, a stereo headphone jack, resistors, LED lights, electrolytic capacitors, a circuit board, a 6mm tactile switch, wires, glasses, and a battery pack to assemble this brain kit. Resistors are used to prevent too much electricity from flowing into certain parts of the circuit, for example, the LED lights, which when receiving too much electricity can burn out. The electrolytic capacitors are used to store electricity in the circuit. The whole system is turned on and off by the 6mm tactile switch.
This brain machine works by utilizing the LED lights and sound programmed by the pre-programmed micro-controller to relax the brain and mind. This program taught me many things including how to solder things, the difference between polar and non-polar parts, and the purposes and names of many different parts.
After finishing this introductory starter project, I will begin working on my main project, which is the EKG and EEG combined display onto an LCD screen.
Good job son