basic example of socket communication with the Force Trainer II to be used as an EEG
The Force Trainer II is a Star Wars toy used to move an hologram with the mind. This toy relies on the TGAM chip, NeuroSky's primary brainwave sensor which is used in entry-level EEG headband. Contrary to other EEG headbands, the Force Trainer is inexpensive (I bought one for ~20$ on Ebay). This makes this device one of the most affordable EEG for entertainment purposes.
For this projet, I took inspiration from this tutorial hacking the Force Trainer I with an Arduino. At first I wanted to reproduce this tutorial by wiring the GND and T pin to an Arduino, but I opted for socket communication with node.js instead of serial RX/TX of Arduino. The Force Trainer II includes a Bluetooth module, which makes it easier to communicate with.
The ThinkGear connector is required to communicate through sockets with the headset. See the documentation here.
Troubleshooting of the headset can be done with the app BrainWave Visualizer, also available on mobile. To do so, just turn on the Force Trainer and bluetooth on your computer/smartphone. Then, pair the two together. The led of the Force Trainer should turn blue.
I provided a minimal example of a node.js app receiving EEG data from the Force Trainer II. Note that it is important to transmit an appkey generated using an SHA-1 in order to handshake with the device, otherwise communication won't be allowed.
Here is a sample of data received, formatted as JSON :
{
eSense: { attention: 50, meditation: 40 },
eegPower: {
delta: 334492,
theta: 712039,
lowAlpha: 406815,
highAlpha: 429260,
lowBeta: 111172,
highBeta: 190516,
lowGamma: 231593,
highGamma: 396946
},
poorSignalLevel: 0
}It is also possible to get the raw data of the EEG signal. Detailed documentation of ThinkGear data values is available here.