This example project demonstrates how the Pinaps information can be used to interface with a synthesizer by calculating MIDI messages from the EEG information and sendin it to the synthesizer to manipulate control parameterss. The vibrato rate is changed according to the attention values measured every second. These follow simple Newton equations of motion to simulate momentum as the vibrato rate changes. Full blog writeup at: PLACEHOLDER

There are two versions of for a wired setup, and a bluetooth wireless setup. The wired setup uses a single Raspberry PI zero which collects EEG data and sends MIDI messages over the USB:MIDI converter to the synthesizer. This is problamatic, as there is potential for a lot of noise which can effect the signal from the EEG electrodes. Considering the EEG singal is in the range of a millionths of a voltage, any noise can disrupt the signal and make it unusable. Therefore, a pair of python scripts for a wireless version have been provided. The msc_client.py is run on the raspberry pi which handles the MIDI messages, so can sit on the table away from the user. The msc_server.py is run on the rapsberry PI zero with the Pinaps, being worn by the user.

The raspberry pi zero needs to be setup to communicate with the synthesizer via the MIDI control protocol. In this project, we use the Mido python package to control the MIDI messages over the USB port. To do this, the OS needs to be configured and Mido needs to be installed.

Mido is a very simple python library which exposes functions for communicating MIDI messages over USB ports available on the system.

Install Mido using:

pip install mido

Install port support using:

pip install python-rtmidi

Finally, to use Mido with USB ports:

pip install python-rtmidi

The documentation for Mido can be found here. The source code for Mido, along with instructions on how to install can be found here.

The Pinaps setup process is documented at: http://docs.blino.io/

Particular parameters of interest are:

vibratoVel = 0 #Controls the velocity, which effects which direction vibrato is moving.

vibratoAcc = 4 #Controls the rate of change of the velocity, which controls the change in vibrato.

By changing these, can control the sensitivity of changes as attention values are measured.

Queries or suggestions? Email [email protected]