Winter 2003 MAT 200A Christina Yao Final project proposal

"Once upon a time, I, Chuang-tzu, dreamt I was a butterfly, flitting hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly...suddenly I awoke. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man."

- Chuang-tzu

Dreams have been objects of boundless fasination and mystery for humankind since the beginning of time.Roughly about one-third of our lives are spent on sleeping, and a significant amount of this time is spent dreaming. Dreams are tools of transformation and they become spiritual levels of consciousness. However, most of the time we forgot what the dreams are about once we woke up, even if we remembered, there is only a particular scene that is clear to us, while majorities are completely blurry. The human brain is a very complex organ. It controls our whole body, including involuntary tasks such as blinking, breathing, and heart beating. It also receives and produces countless signals from your body. Without it our bodies ceased to function. Our brain is active even when we are asleep. What a waste that is, if we have no idea on the brain activities we have when we are asleep? I am curious that if we can transfer the energy of our brains when we sleep, into computer controlling device signals, and to operate computer programs? What is like to see our brain being actively functioning in our dreams?

This is an experimental project, my goal is to have a peek on how powerful, or how active our brain is when we sleep. Dreaming is a product of the brain and its activity. Whether a person is awake or asleep, the brain continuously gives off electrical waves that can be measured by an electroencephalograph(EEG). At most times during sleep, the brain waves are large and slow. But at certain times, they become smaller and faster. The participant will wear a headband before going to sleep, and during sleep session, the headband will be used to transmit the brainwave signals from participant to computer. These signals are input to the computer as digital data. Computer translated the frequencies and amplitudes into control signals to control the lighting, sound, and color displays on the screen. The stronger amplitude generates the brighter the light is, and higher pitch of the sounds from speaker; the weaker, or smaller of the amplitude is, the dimmer the light, and lower pitch of the sounds. Whenever a fast brainwave frequency is detected ( or so called REM, the rapid eye movement state ) computer randomly generated 3D objects will appear on the display screen, and computer also keeps track the number of each REM state so when the participant wakes up, he/she can find out how many dreams he/she has in one night. A gray sphere states one recording of REM state by the computer.

The following is a sample 3D ojects that can be randomly generated by computer software

Color mapping the brainwave (measure in units of voltage) with RGB colors scale. If the brainwave voltage is about 2 volts, then the display color will be blue, which is a value of (0.0, 0.0, 1.0) and a brainwave of 6 volts will be (0.0, 1.0, 0.0) which is a green color and so on.

Above image is a demonstration of a sleeping person entering into a REM state, as you can see the 3D objects are generated in the scene. A gray sphere represents that the person has one dream so far, as in the recording of the computer.

EEG is the representation of the electrical activity of the brain, sampling the electrical activity of the cortex through electrodes attached to the surface of scalp.

Brainwave is measured in Hertz, cycle per second.

The four MAJOR brain states:

(Classification) (Range) (Effects)
Delta -----------------( 1-3)------ Deep sleep, increased immune functions.
Theta-----------------( 4-8)----- Deep relaxation, increased memory and focus.
Alpha-----------------( 9-13)----Light relaxation, positive thinking.
Beta ------------------( 14-+ )----Normal state of alertness, stress and anxiety.

When we sleep, brain states are lie somewhere among the theta and the delta states, where the brainwaves are larger and slower. In the graph below you can find a comparison of the awake state brainwaves and the theta and delta states brainwaves, that the more active the brain is, the faster the brainwave and the smaller of the brainwave amplitudes.

When the delta brainwave frequencies increase into the frequency of theta brainwaves, active dreaming takes place. Typically, this occurs when there is rapid eye movement, which is characteristic of active dreaming.

There are three rooms, and they are the dream room, translation room and vision room. Each room are separated by soundproof walls. The dream room is where the participant wears a headband, and the brainwave will be transmitted into the transmitter in translation station.

Translation Station is where all the computer computations and translations done. Then computer takes those datas into voltages to activates the lights according to the amplitudes of the brainwave. The stronger amplitude generates the brighter the light is, and higher pitch of the sounds from speaker; the weaker, or smaller of the amplitude is, the dimmer the light, and lower pitch of the sounds. Below is an image of display screen with a sleep person in a deep sleep state/dreamless state.

Above is an image of display screen with a sleep person in a REM state with one REM state recorded.

Hardware

1 Headband

1 Transmitter

1 screen

1 projector

2 speakers

2 ceiling lights

soundproof walls

Software

MAX

Translation software, mapping algorithm

Personnel

Computer Scientists

Electrical Engineers

Computer graphic artists

• What if we can set our own instruments and scales on the brainwave/MIDI transfer program, so that we can compose songs with our brainwave when we are asleep!
• With more headband and transmitter equipment, there can be more than one participants involve in the project. How about a dream contest? The winner has the most numbers of dreams!
• Incorporating more bio sensors that measure heart rate, breath, blood pressure and muscle tension data to get an insight into a sleep person's emotions. Therefore have a rough idea of the person's dreams.

In the future, dreamcatcher can also be equipped and displayed with virtual reality pack, that is a HMD, trackers, glove and sterescopic sounds. That will provide us an immersive experience in other people's dreams. What is it like, to be able to store our dreams, and visualize them in a 3 dimensional fashion? What is it like, to be able to navigate or immerse in dreams?

Related links:

The Mind Mirror REALTIME BRAINWAVE SPECTRUM ANALYZER

Bionics BIOFEEDBACKS