Each of us sometimes wonders what's going on in his head, how his brain works. The function of the brain is very fascinating and it would be interesting to explore it. The year-long project provided us with the space and helped us in the realization of our idea, to build an electroencephalogram. (EEG for short). Since EEG uses a non-invasive sensing method and we can build it relatively easily, it was an obvious decision. Although our field does not have a primary focus on electrical engineering, our fascination and fondness for it allowed us to build modified and improved open-source hardware for our needs. As fascinating as it can be to create EEG-controlled software, we decided to make the device itself primarily reliable and practical. Since open-source programs exist in a wide variety and the first priority was to procure the hardware.
Buying a ready-made EEG is an option to get a reliable and proven device, but building it is a challenge and the price ratio between bought and built is abysmal. The unaffordability of the EEG does not allow its easy dissemination especially for educational purposes, not only to medical students. One of the aims of my project is that it is possible to construct a multi-channel EEG even with electrodes with a price tag of under a hundred euros. Not to mention that classical medical EEG uses passive electrodes, with the need to use a conductive gel for a perfect connection with the skin. That's not very nice when you have to wash off the gel after each use... We decided to create active electrodes that, with the help of pins, can pass through the hair and touch the scalp while amplifying the detected signal. All this in a compact size.
If all this works, we will create an expandable, modular, compact, reliable and relatively inexpensive device for measuring brain waves in school settings.
Translated by DeepL.