-Archive from the Spring 2004 semester.
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The goal of our project is to design and build an inexpensive, portable electroencephalogram (EEG - brain wave monitor) that teaches meditation practitioners to achieve optimal meditation by the presence of EEG alpha and theta waves. To do so, our design team must do the following:
1. Select Electrode Sites
2. Select a Electrode Material and Fabricate them
3. Select an Electrode Gel with Suitable Conductivity, Viscosity, and Biocompatibility
4. Assemble Electronic Components to Form an Amplifier
5. Select Suitable Feedback Stimuli that Would Inform the Meditator without Disruption
6. Assemble and Evaluate the System
We have just completed the final poster presentation. We had a working prototype which was based off our newly designed algorithm. The only problem that we are facing now is still obtaining a good signal with no noise or drift continually. The final problem we are having is funding. We need to obtain a National Instruments PDA data acquisition board which cost around $1200. These final problems will be left for other BME design teams to defeat. Throughout the final week of class we plan on finishing up most of the deliverables such as the final report, journal disclosure and evaluations.
| Week | Reporting Period Beginning | Activities |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | January 23 | Contacted companies selling commercial EEG detectors, talked with people regarding making the device portable and which route we should take, brainstormed about fabricating electrodes, and contacted Dr. Pearce about a possible design meeting regarding the project |
| 2 | January 30 | Ordered electrodes and started testing the two electrode placement idea |
| 3 | February 6 | Still waiting on electrodes, contacting more electrode companies, tried simple ecg electrodes which provided good signal, found faults in our analog circuit, and researched microcontrollers and DSP chips |
| 4 | February 13 | Made an appointment at UW hospital to gather information on electrode placement and types, tested more ecg electrodes, researched PDA idea for portability as well as MCU and DSP as stated earlier |
| 5 | February 20 | Appointment at the UW hospital proved to not be very helpful, received no materials or equipment that they use for EEG analysis, however did obtain information on the type of electrodes used as well as conduction and attachment equipment |
| 6 | February 27 | Called grass telefactor, they offered to send three free electrode samples, also prepared for the midsemester presentation, once grass telefactor electrodes were obtained we attemped to obtain signals, tried several different placements found three on the frontal lobe to be the best arrangement, used these findings in the mid semester presentation |
| 7 | March 5 | This week we finished deliverables to hand in to Mitch and prepared for a week of fun in the sun (spring break) |
| 8 | March 12 | Spring Break ~ Birk went to Florida, Chris stayed around Madison, Eric went home to Shawano, Kevin went to the US virgin Island of St. Thomas on a cruise, vowed at the end of the trip to never take a cruise again |
| 9 | March 19 | Began to consider the portability of the device, we do have a good signal so we can use that data for analysis of the algorithm, however we need to consider how we are going to shrink the device down, Eric and Valley have been considering different types of microcontrollers and several different chips, Eric also has been pushing the idea of a PDA |
| 10 | March 26 | The PDA idea was explored this week, turns out Labview has a PDA module within the program we have been using all this time, if we can put our algorithm into the PDA module then we can put the entire program on a PDA, Eric’s brother has a PDA he said we could use, thanks Nate you are a true engineering friend |
| 11 | April 2 | Unfortunately the PDA module has a limited number of toolkit options which means we cannot use the fourier analysis we have been using in the algorithm, new ideas for an algorithm have been thrown around, we plan on attempting to develop the best one next week when everyone has more time in their schedules |
| 12 | April 9 | Tried a new algorithm that depends on the max and min values of the EEG signal within a fraction of a second (64 samples of 256), the algorithm then uses these values to set a threshold, if the signal is above the threshold a 1 is assigned if below a zero is assigned, a square wave is the outcome, from the square wave plot we can then assign the correct frequency by mulitplying that number by four in other words we are analyzing one quarter of a second at a time, algorithm proved to work very well, but the signal has to be almost perfect |
| 13 | April 16 | Since our signal still was not the best, we accessed EEG data from researchers on campus, from them we were able to obtain excellent clean signals with no noise or drift, using these signals our algorithm worked like a charm and the proper feedback was assigned, the only probelm with the design thus far is the data acquisition into the PDA, National Instruments sells a device that costs $1200.00 which allows acquisition right into the PDA, which is what needs to be purchased next (future design groups) |
| 14 | April 23 | Finished tweaking the prototype and poster and presented our findings and research at the poster presentations on April 30, 2004 in the Engineering Centers building |
| 15 | April 30 | This week we are finishing our deliverables (final report, journal disclosure, notebooks, and evaluations) |
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Mid-semester Presentation (Apr 10 2004, 1014 kb) |
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Final Poster Presentation (May 1 2004, 3507 kb) |
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Final Design Report Spring 2004 (BME 402) (May 3 2004, 10854 kb) |
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Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing Journal Letter of Transmittal (May 3 2004, 61 kb) |
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Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing Journal Proposal (May 4 2004, 64 kb) |
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Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing Journal Justification (May 4 2004, 37 kb) |
