Journal Entry 5: Emotiv’s Captious Confusion-Creating Controller

Of all the hardware out there, Emotiv is one of the few relying on a single piece of software in order to do most anything with it. Two if you’re daisy-chaining in order to use the Emotiv output within programming.

That being said, the Emotiv EPOC Control Panel is the Controller for the Emotiv Headset. This is a piece of software that is downloadable free from the Emotiv store (so long as you have an Emotiv account) that, in conjunction with an Emotiv headset or a way of formulating synthetic data, can provide a limited amount of information.

The EPOC Control Panel performs some sort of mathematical hocus pocus that takes the readings from the 16 sensors and translates that into the different statuses displayed within the Control Panel, such as meditation, excitement, push, pull, wink, and more. To the best of my knowledge from working with and attempting to have work the free non-functional Python SDK for Emotiv reverse-engineered by non-Emotiv staff and workers, the data displayed is actually quite different from the data received.

There is some unknown mechanism at work that takes the raw electrical data provided and turns it into easily understood concepts. In addition, from tinkering with this non-functional Python SDK, I’ve learned that the mathematical hocus pocus somehow manages to calculate where the baseline is for one’s head and recalculates it constantly in order to express near-accurate output of the pitch and yaw when using the accelerometer.

The Emotiv EPOC Control Panel seems to have a plethora of data just under the surface out of reach, that if tapped could enhance the capabilities of the headset as a whole.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.