Announcing the first public release of Puzzlebox Brainstorms, an Open Source software suite supporting school projects which help introduce students to robotics and brain-computer interfaces.
The project’s intention is to work in coordination with teachers, student groups, researchers, designers, and developers who are interested in collaborating in an open community environment. It is based on members of each type contributing their own skills and interests in “Stone Soup” fashion.
The goal of this project is to produce a complete set of software tools and applications, as well as teacher resources such as lesson plans, which guide technology educators through classroom-ready projects. It is envisioned students can be broken up into groups and allowed to experiment with designing and building their own robotic vehicles using LEGO Mindstorms, first racing them directly from classroom computers, and later through mind control via EEG headset.
Puzzlebox is sponsoring the effort by contributing this forum, technical environment, and the initial software which already supports driving a simple robot through brain control, as measured by an EEG device, such as the Emotiv EPOC. Currently the receiving software runs on a Nokia n900 mobile Linux handset, permitting tele-operation over the internet via mobile data or a local wireless network. A live video stream from the “robot’s perspective” can be transmitted back to the user from the built-in camera.
All software in this project is released free of charge as Open Source, under the GNU Public License (GPLv2).
Questions, comments, and interested parties should contact us to see how they can become involved.