What kind of software and hardware should be used for Brain wave device

Question

I'm doing a project for school on a product I'm designing. The product is going to be a device that monitors brain wave signals and will alert the person before they go to sleep. The alarm is going to be a loud annoying sound that will be heard through ear buds.

So I pretty much know the hardware. The biggest thing will be an EEG that will detect the brain waves, the speaker waking the person up, and all the hardware like a processor for filtering and antialiasing.

What I'm not sure of is what kind of software to use. I'm guessing something that converts the analog signals to digital and then back to analog to produce the sound. So what should I use? Also if you can help me on the hardware that would be great too.

Thank you

Answer 1

This sounds like a very exciting project.  

In the late 60's and early 70's there was a product similar to this available.  What they did was detect what they called alpha, beta and theta waves in the brain and produce a soothing tone.  The tone meant that you had theta waves and it was supposed to be good meditation if you could make theta waves.  The device was sold as a stress reducing device.  It sounds like what you are making is a safety device, and if you can do it, well its a great thing.

By the way, another interesting device back in the day, was Biorhythms by computer.   You can probably find out about Biorhythms using google.  Back in 1980 Biorythms were just about the only thing that people liked about computers.  You might be very surprised, but almost everyone thought computers were dangerous, or at least, something to be very careful about.

Answer 2

you need to do some kind of patern recognition on the signals coming from the EEG.

Perhaps what you're looking for is theta waves. Fourier analysis might prove useful. If the theta waves make up more than a certain percentage of the signal then assume entering sleep...

Then all you do is turn a voltage on/off at a frequency required to produce the "annoying" sound