Mindflex Hack Turns Brain Waves Into Music
By modding a geeky toy and connecting it to a vintage synthesizer, an indie rocker/hacker has created a trippy instrument that lets him make music with his mind.
Robert Schneider, singer/guitarist for The Apples in Stereo, made his Teletron by cracking open a Mattel Mindflex, a mind-control game that employs an EEG sensor to let players move a small ball through a maze using nothing but brain waves.
“It’s kind of punk-rock,” Schneider told Wired.com in a phone interview about the project. “You can hack the Mindflex yourself and make brain music.” Schneider’s first mind-control musical performance took place last month at LVL1, a hackerspace in Louisville, Kentucky. LVL1’s Chris Cprek strapped on EEG sensors attached to two of the modified game devices, then reading from Schneider’s score, which is basically a collage of various texts and images.
