(playful music)

(mechanical whirring)

By reading the electrical signals of our brains,

scientists have developed brain computer interfaces

or BCIs to connect machines directly with our minds.

In the past year, a community of engineers,

artists and makers has come together

because of OpenBCI,

an open source company based in Brooklyn.

By offering affordable hardware powered by open source

technology, OpenBCI empowers the DIY community

to reimagine how we interact with machines.

I've been involved in open source hardware

since about 2008,

practicing it, using it, trying to design around it.

We started OpenBCI, which is an open source

brand computer interface platform.

This weekend we are running our first hackathon.

This is what we've been waiting for

is to actually have the tech in the wild

and to be able to teach people how to use it

and to bring people together,

people who have experience with brain computer interfaces,

people who have no experience

with brain computer interfaces,

but everyone has a stake or an interest at least

in the space,

so it's just been really exciting to have everyone

come in here and kind of demonstrating

what all these signals mean

and how they can be used to understand who we are.

[Derek] In order to get started with out kit,

attach the six volt double A battery pack

to the open BCI board.

Next, attach our electrode cables to the board.

Now it's time to attach each electrode to the body.

The brain, muscle and heart's electrical signals

can now be visualized through the graphic user interface.

(playful music)

It's really awesome to see people

witnessing their own brain activity for the first time.

We should see a heartbeat,

you don't have a heartbeat right now,

I don't know if that's a good thing.

(both laughing)

So each time she blinks her eyes,

you can see these big spikes here.

Can you see all those spikes?

Those are EMG artifacts, electrical muscle activity.

[Derek] This hackathoner is measuring

his brainwaves associated with concentration,

as he plays a computer game.

Our hackathoners work to control

each of these robotic toy spiders

through the power of their brain activity.

Little more, there we go.

(mechanical whirring)

[Derek] This hackathoner is controlling

this robotic arm using an EMG electrode.

When he flexes his forearm,

the electrical impulses generated by his muscles

trigger the robotic arm to move.

The robotic arm itself is entirely open source

and was printed with a 3D printer.

In this demonstration, each hackathoner

concentrates on one independent command

to collectively utilize their thoughts

and steer this inflatable shark through the air.

Innovation happens faster when software

and hardware is open source,

when people can change it and modify it

to their desire.

I think what's really important

is presenting a tool both for research and for learning

to people of younger generations

who can approach the entire problem space

from an inquisitive perspective,

where they're like,

I don't know what I can do with this yet,

but no one really does.

This community of DIY cyborg enthusiasts

and innovators are growing larger every day.

OpenBCI have hosted hackathons all over the world

to encourage and foster the next generation

of BCI devices.

With the help of dreamers, makers and experimenters,

more applications for this technology

will soon be discovered.

And for now, we can move a freaking inflatable shark

with our minds.

Come on, that is cool as hell.

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