Comparison of consumer brain–computer interfaces

This is a comparison of brain-computer interface devices available on the consumer market.

Comparison

Device	Price	Electrodes	ADC bits	Sensors Interpret:	Peripheral	SDK	Released	Producer	Interface	Notes
Aurora Dream Headband	$199	1	8	frontal EEG/EOG sensor, open SDK, embedded 4-stage sleep tracking, 2 LEDs near the eyes	Yes	Yes	July 2015	iwinks	Bluetooth Low Energy / USB / SD Card	Consumer Sleep Device
Melon Headband	$149	4	?	L+R hemisphere prefrontal EEG		Yes	Nov 2014	Melon	Bluetooth Low Energy	A headband and mobile app to measure your focus
HiBrain	$230	1	?	9 mental states, facial tension, eye movement & quiet eye	Yes	Yes	SEP 2014	HyperNeuro	Bluetooth or RF	Healthcare. Golden alloy active electrode.
iFocusBand	$310	1	?	8 mental states, facial tension, eye movement & quiet eye	Yes	Yes	October 2014	iFocusBand	Bluetooth	Soft woven sensors, audio feedback.
MindWave	$99.95	1	12	2 mental states (based on 4 brainwaves), eyeblinks	Yes	Yes	21 March 2011; 14 years ago	NeuroSky
Mindflex (Uses NeuroSky chips)	$50	1	12	1 mental state	No	No	21 December 2009; 15 years ago	Mattel (Neurosky partner
Emotiv EPOC	$399–499	14	16	3 mental states (based on brainwaves), 13 conscious thoughts, facial expressions, head movements (sensed by 2 gyros)	Yes	Yes	21 December 2009; 15 years ago	Emotiv Systems
Emotiv Insight	$299	5	14		Yes	Expected	Expected April 2015	Emotiv Lifescience	Bluetooth 4.0 LE.
Star Wars Force Trainer (based on NeuroSky chips)	$45	1	12	1 mental state	No	No	21 June 2009; 15 years ago	Uncle Milton (Neurosky partner		Discontinued
MindSet	$199	1	12	2 mental states (based on 4 brainwaves), eyeblinks	Yes	Yes	March 2007; 18 years ago	NeuroSky
Mindball	$20,000	1	?	1 mental state	No	No	21 March 2003; 22 years ago	Interactive Productline
XWave headset (uses NeuroSky chips)	$90	1	12	8 EEG bands	Yes	Yes	5 January 2011; 14 years ago (Windows and iOS apps available now, Android app available soon)	PLX Devices	Bluetooth	Designed to look like a normal sports headband, no longer available
XWave Sonic (uses NeuroSky chips)	$100	1	12	?	?	?	iOS apps available now	PLX Devices	Bluetooth	Discontinued
MyndPlay BrainBand (Uses NeuroSky chips )	$158	1	12	8 EEG bands	Yes	Yes	1 December 2011; 13 years ago	MyndPlay	Bluetooth	Soft headband, uses conductive gel for ear-clip
Muse	$299	4	16	7 sensors; 5 front (2 active, 2 DRL, 1 reference), 2 active behind ears	?	Yes	Shipped April 2014	InteraXon	Bluetooth	Comes with brain training app designed to reduce stress and improve focus.
OpenBCI	$449 or $799	8 or 16 per board	24		Yes	Yes	Shipped to general public Dec 2014	OpenBCI project	Bluetooth 4.0	Open hardware project. Boards can be daisy chained together to increase electrode count.

Open-source projects

Emokit is an open-source Python library for reading out sensor data from the EPOC (Emotiv Systems) by Cody Brocious. It was built by reverse-engineering the encrypted protocol. Emokit has been deprecated in favour of emokit.

In 2011 Make magazine published an article on hacking NeuroSky headsets. In 2012 Hack a Day published an article on modifying NeuroSky headsets for sleep and dream research.

Open-source Matlab toolboxes such as EEGLAB, Fieldtrip, and the Neurophysiological Biomarker Toolbox (NBT) can be used to process data from the electroencephalography. The Fieldtrip toolbox also offers a real-time plugin.

OpenVibe is a LGPL software platform (C++) to design, test and use BCI. The software comes with an acquisition server that is currently compatible with many EEG device including Neurosky Mindset, Emotiv EPOC (Research Edition or above) and OpenEEG. The software is developed at INRIA.

Several open-source computer programs are also available from EPFL's CNBI project.

The openEEG project has developed several open hardware EEG devices.

OpenBCI ran a successful Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign in January, 2014, and shipped its open-hardware signal acquisition boards to the public (and released its open-source software) in December.

Technology

All of the devices listed use electroencephalography except the Neural Impulse Actuator which only uses electromyography. Some use both electroencephalography and electromyography, such as the BrainBand MindWave, EPOC, and MindSet.

The OpenBCI board can acquire electroencephalography (EEG, electrical activity of the brain), electromyography (EMG, electrical activity of skeletal muscles), and electrocardiography (ECG or EKG, electrical activity of the heart) data.

External links

• Porting Digital Memory, H+ Magazine, 25 May 2010

• NeuroSky Developers open source SDK
• Emokit open source SDK
• Python library for the Emotiv EPOC headset on Github
• daeken/Emokit has been deprecated in favour of qdot/emokit on GitHub