User Guide August 4, 2011

Brainwave Visualizer
Introduction
e Brainwave Visualizer is a colorful, interactive application controlled by your brain, that shows
you a graphical representation of your brain’s activity. e Brainwave Visualizer includes the Brainwave
Visualization, Brainwave Power Spectrum Graph, and the eSense Attention and Meditation meters.
e on-screen shapes morph and change color depending on your state of mind. Because each person
has a unique brain wave pro le, no two visualizations will ever be the same.

Minimum System Requirements

PC Mac
Operating system Windows XP/Vista/7 Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or Later
Processor Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent
Video card DirectX 9.0 + (ATI Radeon 8500 or higher) Intel GMA900 or higher
RAM 1GB memory
HDD 100MB hard disk space
Bluetooth Bundled USB dongle or built-in receiver

Running Brainwave Visualizer

On Windows, BrainWave Visualizer can be run from the Windows start menu or run from App
Central. On Mac, Brainwave Visualizer can be run from the MindWave application folder. Brainwave
Visualizer will open and display a screen to select and change graphics settings and keyboard settings.
After selecting your ideal settings, press "Play!" to launch the BrainWave Visualizer.

Connecting BrainWave Visualizer

After starting BrainWave Visualizer, it will automatically try to connect to your headset. Ensure that
inkGear Connector is running in the background. If the connection is unsuccessful try the steps
that will appear in the lower left corner of the screen and then press "Retry connection" under the
Troubleshooting tab in inkGear connector. If a connection is still unsucessful, restart the inkGear
connector and try to connect again.
If you enable demo mode and then press connect, then the BrainWave visualizer will display random
BrainWave data.
If you are experiencing a poor connection/less than 4 bars , press disconnect in the top right of the
screen and try the steps listed in the lower left corner. Press connect in the top right corner afterwards.
 Section 5 – Configuring the Brainwave Visualizer

Configuring the Brainwave Visualizer

To con gure BV, click on the ESC key on the keyboard and the con guration panel will be displayed.
You will have the option of:

Label Description
Display Output Data is option displays all the brainwave data in
numerical form.
Show axes is option enables or disables the display of the
radial axes shown in the dynamic visualizer.
Enable full screen mode is option turns on full-screen mode, which
causes the Visualizer to occupy your entire
screen.

You can also change the language in the con guration panel.

Figure 1: Con guration Menu

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 Section 6 – Interface

Interface
e Visualizer contains several interface elements that are common to the different views built in.

Figure 2: Interface overview

Name Description
View selector is lets you select between the available views. e selector only
1 appears when you move the mouse cursor. It disappears if the
keyboard and mouse have been idle for long enough.
Signal status is tells you the quality of the brainwave signal coming from
2 the headset. A red X means that the headset is disconnected.
e more bars there are, the better the signal quality. Generally,
a status with four or ve signal bars indicates a good signal.

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 Section 7 – Views

Views
e functions of the different views are explained in the sections below.

Chart View
e rst view you see when you start up the Visualizer is the Chart View, which consists of the
Dynamic Brainwave Visualization, the iTunes Media Bar, the Brainwave Power Spectrum Graph, and
the eSense™ Attention and Meditation meters. e Chart View provides a comprehensive display of
all the data coming from your headset.

Figure 3: Chart view

Note: e Chart View contains an interactive help feature. Click on each of the various components
to bring up an informative description of that component, along with voice narration.

Dynamic View
e Dynamic View of the Visualizer emphasizes the gently owing shape of the dynamic visualizer
component. You can use the left and right arrow keys to change the look and characteristic of this
shape.

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Section 7 – Views

Figure 4: Dynamic view

Note: Try playing some music while running the Visualizer in this mode. You may see some unique
shapes and colors that are generated by actively listening to a particular track!

Game View
e Game View of the Visualizer lets you play two simple telekinetic games that utilize eSense™ values
from the headset. You can hold down and drag the right mouse button to change the perspective of
the camera. Buttons on the left side of the screen will let you choose a game, either oat or burn.
In burn, there is a barrel that will burn based on your eSense™ attention level. e more attentive you
are, the quicker it will burn. See how fast you can burn the barrel!
In oat, you will attempt to oat a ball based on your eSense™ meditation level. e more meditative
you are, the higher and longer the ball will oat.
Statistics for each of these games are displayed in the top left area of the screen in game view. A meter
at the bottom of the screen will show your current eSense™ levels.

Game View 5
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 Section 8 – Brainwave Recording and Playback

Figure 5: Game view

Brainwave Recording and Playback

Important: is feature requires iTunes 9 or newer. You can download it here.

e Brainwave Visualizer contains functionality to perform recording and playback of brainwave data
that is associated with music in your iTunes library.

Interface
ere are three primary elements that are associated with brainwave recording and playback.

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Section 8 – Brainwave Recording and Playback

Figure 6: Brainwave recording and playback interface elements

Name Description
Status noti cation Shows the current state of the playback and recording functionality.
1
Popup message win- Shows brief noti cations and error messages.
2 dow
Media Bar Shows song information, and controls playback and recording func-
3 tionality.

Recording
To record brainwave data for a song, start playing a song in iTunes, then click on the red "record"
button in the Media Bar. iTunes will automatically skip to the beginning of the track, and the Brain-
wave Visualizer will start recording data. e status noti cation will also indicate that recording is in
progress.

Important: e raw output line is hidden while recording is in progress. is is because raw data is
not recorded.

When the song nishes playing, the brainwave data will be automatically saved. You can now play
back the recorded brainwave data.

Note: If recording is stopped by the user in the middle of a song by clicking the red "stop" button,
the brainwave data will not be saved.

Recording 7
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Section 8 – Brainwave Recording and Playback

Playback
To play back recorded brainwave data, start playing a song in iTunes and click on the "play" button
in the Media Bar. iTunes will automatically skip to the beginning of the track, and the Brainwave
Visualizer will start playing back the recorded brainwave data. e status noti cation will indicate
that playback is in progress.

Note: If no recorded brainwave data is available for a particular track, the "play" button will be
dimmed and unclickable.

Playback 8
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 Section 9 – Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting
Where is the recorded brainwave data stored?
e storage location depends on your platform:

Platform Location
Windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Local Set-
tings\Application Data\NeuroSky\Brainwave Visualizer
Windows Vista / 7 C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\NeuroSky\Brainwave Vi-
sualizer
OS X /Users/<your username>/Library/Application Support/Neu-
roSky/Brainwave Visualizer

e data is stored in an XML format, making it easy to read and parse the saved data.
e application doesn't connect to the headset.
Make sure your headset is turned on and paired to the computer. If you are on Windows, make sure
that the Port scan option is enabled when connecting to the headset. On the Mac, be sure that you
have the correct serial port name by following the instructions in Appendix A: Mac Serial Port Name.
If the headset still refuses to connect, un-pair the device, restart the computer, then re-pair the device
before attempting to run the application.
e signal quality status is consistently poor (fewer than three bars).
e ear contacts should be resting directly on your ear and the forehead sensor should be on your
forehead. Also, check that the sensors and contacts are making good contact with the skin. Make sure
to remove all obstructions including hair and jewelry.
It usually takes three or four seconds for the headset to validate the signal after holding still. Also make
certain to keep the sensor and contacts clean
I don't seem to be able to control the eSense™ meters.
Like exercising an unfamiliar muscle, it may take some time to gain full pro ciency with the eSense™
meters. First, be sure you understand how the eSense meters work and what they are measuring.
Generally, we recommend engaging Attention by concentrating and Meditation by relaxing. Most
importantly, be sure you have read the detailed explanation of eSense previously described in the
eSense™ sections.
I have a problem that is not covered by this troubleshooting section.
Read the MindSet Manual for troubleshooting tips. If the manual doesn't address your question,
register on the NeuroSky Support Forums at http://support.neurosky.com to access additional infor-
mation.

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NeuroSky, Inc.
125 S. Market St., Ste. 900
San Jose, CA 95113
United States
http://support.neurosky.com

Information in this document is subject to change with-

out notice.
Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the writ-
ten permission of NeuroSky Inc. is strictly forbidden.
Trademarks used in this text: eSense™, CogniScore™, inkGear™,
MindSet™, MindWave™, NeuroBoy™, NeuroSky®

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