Interfacing the Brain Directly with Musical Systems: On Developing Systems for Making Music with Brain Signals

Abstract

The authors discuss their work on developing technology to interface the brain directly with music systems, a field of research generally known as Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI). The paper gives a brief background of BCI in general and surveys various attempts at musical BCI, or Brain-Computer Music Interface (BCMI) — systems designed to make music from brain signals, or brainwaves. The authors present a technical introduction to the electroencephalogram (EEG), which measures brainwaves detected by electrodes placed directly on the scalp. They introduce approaches to the design of BCI and BCMI systems and present two case study systems of their own design: the BCMI-Piano and the Inter-Harmonium.