The Emotiv EPOC headset is made up of two kinds of sensors. The lesser-recognized of the two is the accelerometer.
The Emotiv’s accelerometer can measure your head’s position in space. Using the premade Emotiv software, this information is translated into (x, y) coordinates for your cursor if you so decide to enable it. Further applications of this data can be achieved through using MindYourOSCs, but with the bare-basics software (the EPOC Control Panel), this is the best one can get.
The second kind of sensor on the Emotiv headset is the EEG sensor, of which 16 are present in the Emotiv headset. These sensors translate brainwaves into numerous predefined outputs when using the base software or MindYourOSCs, including facial movements, emotions, and a few commands which must be defined before being translated into said output.
These sensors are made up of a metal base, a plastic ring, another plastic ring with nubs, and a felt piece. After a saline solution is applied to the felt piece, which is within the inner plastic ring and against the metal base, the headset is placed on the head and the sensors are lined up accordingly. The brain emits electric signals on the surface of the brain, which the wet-felt pieces can conduct to the metal piece, which is connected to socket for the sensor in the headset. From there, the EEG data is sent wirelessly from the headset to the Emotiv USB, and then to whatever programs are requesting the information, such as the EPOC Panel and MindYourOSCs.
And now for a semi-relevant video for you Angry Birds fanatics (if the link works) :
