24 research outputs found

    Identifying users and activities from brain wave signals recorded from a wearable headband

    Get PDF
    1 online resource (xii, 82 p.) : ill.Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-82).This paper studies the supervised classification of electroencephalogram (EEG) brain signals to identify persons and their activities. The brain signals are obtained from a commercially available and modestly priced wearable headband. Such wear-able devices generate a large amount of data and due to their attractive pricing struc-ture are becoming increasingly commonplace. As a result, the data generated from such wearables will increase exponentially, leading to many interesting data mining opportunities. This paper proposes a representation that reduces variable length signals to more manageable and uniformly fixed length distributions, and then explores the effectiveness of a variety of data mining techniques on the biometric signals. The proposed approach is demonstrated through data collected from a wearable headband that recorded EEG brain signals. The brain signals are recorded for a number of participants performing various tasks. The experiments use a number of classification and clustering techniques, including decision trees, SVM, neural networks, random forests, K-means clustering, and semi-supervised crisp and rough K-medoid clustering. The results show that it is possible to identify both the persons and the activities with a reasonable degree of precision. Furthermore, for identifying persons the evolutionary semi-supervised crisp and rough K-medoid clustering is shown to favourably compare with the conventional unsupervised algorithms such as K-means

    Emotion and Stress Recognition Related Sensors and Machine Learning Technologies

    Get PDF
    This book includes impactful chapters which present scientific concepts, frameworks, architectures and ideas on sensing technologies and machine learning techniques. These are relevant in tackling the following challenges: (i) the field readiness and use of intrusive sensor systems and devices for capturing biosignals, including EEG sensor systems, ECG sensor systems and electrodermal activity sensor systems; (ii) the quality assessment and management of sensor data; (iii) data preprocessing, noise filtering and calibration concepts for biosignals; (iv) the field readiness and use of nonintrusive sensor technologies, including visual sensors, acoustic sensors, vibration sensors and piezoelectric sensors; (v) emotion recognition using mobile phones and smartwatches; (vi) body area sensor networks for emotion and stress studies; (vii) the use of experimental datasets in emotion recognition, including dataset generation principles and concepts, quality insurance and emotion elicitation material and concepts; (viii) machine learning techniques for robust emotion recognition, including graphical models, neural network methods, deep learning methods, statistical learning and multivariate empirical mode decomposition; (ix) subject-independent emotion and stress recognition concepts and systems, including facial expression-based systems, speech-based systems, EEG-based systems, ECG-based systems, electrodermal activity-based systems, multimodal recognition systems and sensor fusion concepts and (x) emotion and stress estimation and forecasting from a nonlinear dynamical system perspective

    Augmentation of Brain Function: Facts, Fiction and Controversy. Volume III: From Clinical Applications to Ethical Issues and Futuristic Ideas

    Get PDF
    The final volume in this tripartite series on Brain Augmentation is entitled “From Clinical Applications to Ethical Issues and Futuristic Ideas”. Many of the articles within this volume deal with translational efforts taking the results of experiments on laboratory animals and applying them to humans. In many cases, these interventions are intended to help people with disabilities in such a way so as to either restore or extend brain function. Traditionally, therapies in brain augmentation have included electrical and pharmacological techniques. In contrast, some of the techniques discussed in this volume add specificity by targeting select neural populations. This approach opens the door to where and how to promote the best interventions. Along the way, results have empowered the medical profession by expanding their understanding of brain function. Articles in this volume relate novel clinical solutions for a host of neurological and psychiatric conditions such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, epilepsy, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), traumatic brain injury, and disorders of consciousness. In disease, symptoms and signs denote a departure from normal function. Brain augmentation has now been used to target both the core symptoms that provide specificity in the diagnosis of a disease, as well as other constitutional symptoms that may greatly handicap the individual. The volume provides a report on the use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in ASD with reported improvements of core deficits (i.e., executive functions). TMS in this regard departs from the present-day trend towards symptomatic treatment that leaves unaltered the root cause of the condition. In diseases, such as schizophrenia, brain augmentation approaches hold promise to avoid lengthy pharmacological interventions that are usually riddled with side effects or those with limiting returns as in the case of Parkinson’s disease. Brain stimulation can also be used to treat auditory verbal hallucination, visuospatial (hemispatial) neglect, and pain in patients suffering from multiple sclerosis. The brain acts as a telecommunication transceiver wherein different bandwidth of frequencies (brainwave oscillations) transmit information. Their baseline levels correlate with certain behavioral states. The proper integration of brain oscillations provides for the phenomenon of binding and central coherence. Brain augmentation may foster the normalization of brain oscillations in nervous system disorders. These techniques hold the promise of being applied remotely (under the supervision of medical personnel), thus overcoming the obstacle of travel in order to obtain healthcare. At present, traditional thinking would argue the possibility of synergism among different modalities of brain augmentation as a way of increasing their overall effectiveness and improving therapeutic selectivity. Thinking outside of the box would also provide for the implementation of brain-to-brain interfaces where techniques, proper to artificial intelligence, could allow us to surpass the limits of natural selection or enable communications between several individual brains sharing memories, or even a global brain capable of self-organization. Not all brains are created equal. Brain stimulation studies suggest large individual variability in response that may affect overall recovery/treatment, or modify desired effects of a given intervention. The subject’s age, gender, hormonal levels may affect an individual’s cortical excitability. In addition, this volume discusses the role of social interactions in the operations of augmenting technologies. Finally, augmenting methods could be applied to modulate consciousness, even though its neural mechanisms are poorly understood. Finally, this volume should be taken as a debate on social, moral and ethical issues on neurotechnologies. Brain enhancement may transform the individual into someone or something else. These techniques bypass the usual routes of accommodation to environmental exigencies that exalted our personal fortitude: learning, exercising, and diet. This will allow humans to preselect desired characteristics and realize consequent rewards without having to overcome adversity through more laborious means. The concern is that humans may be playing God, and the possibility of an expanding gap in social equity where brain enhancements may be selectively available to the wealthier individuals. These issues are discussed by a number of articles in this volume. Also discussed are the relationship between the diminishment and enhancement following the application of brain-augmenting technologies, the problem of “mind control” with BMI technologies, free will the duty to use cognitive enhancers in high-responsibility professions, determining the population of people in need of brain enhancement, informed public policy, cognitive biases, and the hype caused by the development of brain- augmenting approaches

    Affective Computing

    Get PDF
    This book provides an overview of state of the art research in Affective Computing. It presents new ideas, original results and practical experiences in this increasingly important research field. The book consists of 23 chapters categorized into four sections. Since one of the most important means of human communication is facial expression, the first section of this book (Chapters 1 to 7) presents a research on synthesis and recognition of facial expressions. Given that we not only use the face but also body movements to express ourselves, in the second section (Chapters 8 to 11) we present a research on perception and generation of emotional expressions by using full-body motions. The third section of the book (Chapters 12 to 16) presents computational models on emotion, as well as findings from neuroscience research. In the last section of the book (Chapters 17 to 22) we present applications related to affective computing

    Listening to the mind at play: sonified biofeedback as generative art practice and theory

    Get PDF
    Explorative play affects the root of our being, as it is generative. Often experienced as a thrill, explorative play gradually lures its players beyond their mental or physical limits. While doing so, it affects players well before they can perform intentional actions. To understand explorative play therefore means to understand what happens before intention sets in. But this is problematic: by the time this becomes experienceable it is already clouded by habit and memory. However, thought processes outlined in Deleuze’s philosophy of difference reveal important clues as to how habitual thinking patterns may be exceeded, and why explorative play might cause thrilling and vertiginous experiences: when our awareness of the present is intensified, the potential to disturb habitual patterns arises; within this there is a chance to arrive at an ‘intuitive understanding’ of events where intensities express themselves as non-intentional movement or poetic language. This notion was investigated through generative art practice. An experimental setting was prepared that allowed for explorative play with a complex system – a biofeedback instrument that sonified its wearer’s physiological data in real-time. This instrument was explored in performances as well as participative action research sessions. The insight emerging from the performances was that introspection and stillness can enhance practice. The connections to Eastern practices this suggests were followed up and, by investigating the role of stillness in performance practices like Butoh, methods that may radicalise a biofeedback performance came to light. Extending these to biofeedback composition then made listening a central focus of this research and consequently, listeners’ responses to sonified biofeedback, the disruption of habitual musical expectations and increased immersed listening became paramount aspects of the practice. Conversely, the insight emerging from the participative sessions was that explorative playing with a complex system can allow for a more intuitive understanding of the generative because the emerging play experiences can be internally transformative; producing new ideas and forms, for instance poetic language or improvised movement. Thus overall, the research underlined the benefits of a greater propagation of explorative play

    Measuring Behavior 2018 Conference Proceedings

    Get PDF
    These proceedings contain the papers presented at Measuring Behavior 2018, the 11th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research. The conference was organised by Manchester Metropolitan University, in collaboration with Noldus Information Technology. The conference was held during June 5th – 8th, 2018 in Manchester, UK. Building on the format that has emerged from previous meetings, we hosted a fascinating program about a wide variety of methodological aspects of the behavioral sciences. We had scientific presentations scheduled into seven general oral sessions and fifteen symposia, which covered a topical spread from rodent to human behavior. We had fourteen demonstrations, in which academics and companies demonstrated their latest prototypes. The scientific program also contained three workshops, one tutorial and a number of scientific discussion sessions. We also had scientific tours of our facilities at Manchester Metropolitan Univeristy, and the nearby British Cycling Velodrome. We hope this proceedings caters for many of your interests and we look forward to seeing and hearing more of your contributions

    Temporal integration of loudness as a function of level

    Get PDF
    corecore