What do neuroscience and fencing have in common? This was a question asked—and answered!— by Supriya Nair, high-schooler and neurofencer from Washington State. After winning WA State Science Fair two years in a row using our gear, this young scientist took the opportunity to present her neurofencing research at US Fencing Nationals in Minneapolis—and volunteered to become our brand ambassador while at it!
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Picture this: you’re sitting in your bedroom in Germany, video chatting with a friend in South Korea over coffee. You sip your coffee and they have no choice but to sip theirs!
That’s exactly what our new prototype, the Wireless Human-Human Interface, is about. It transmits biosignals from one person’s brain to the ulnar nerve in another person’s arm. Yes, that’s what our classic Human-Human Interface does too. Except that you can now do it remotely!
So far, people could connect remotely via WiFi. Now they can also connect via electrophysiology!
Which is why we’re super excited to announce that the Wireless HHI has made it into the selection for this year’s Amazing Maker Award contest, along with 95 other applicants! The top 12 projects will be selected as finalists and published in Make: Magazine, and the best 3 are to get cash prizes. It’s a juried competition, but community votes will count as well.
Best of all, you can help us too if you like our prototype! Just head over here and hit “Vote”. (You’ll need to log in or register if you haven’t already.) You can vote once per day per project till July 15, when the winners will be announced.
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Our DIY neuroscience gear has already seen over a hundred countries all over the world. And it doesn’t intend to stop! So to scratch the gear’s itch, we decided to organize two more demoes in Europe—this time, in Branko Radicevic High School and Simeon Aranicki Elementary in the town of Stara Pazova (Serbia).
Our team members Stefana, Nestor and Vojin hit the biology classes with 1st- to 4th-graders, as well as 7th- and 8th-graders. There, they held workshops presenting our latest version of Human-Human Interface.
As ever, the kids were flabbergasted with the opportunity to hijack another person’s free will and “steal” their electrical impulse. But our team also planted some seeds that we hope will sprout into lifelong interest in robotics, computer science, medicine and related fields.
So far, our #neuroscience gear has seen over 100 countries over the world. So after South Korea and Perú, we decided to revisit Serbia! Here's a sneak peek at the workshops our team held there w/ elementary and high schoolers.
— Backyard Brains (@BackyardBrains) June 10, 2022
? and more details ???? https://t.co/QdrSMnoDTM pic.twitter.com/FM5vc6kMqp
Aside from the sheer fun of arranging who’s going to control whom, the kids also got to measure the intensity of the impulse and figure out the muscle/fat ratio in our bodies. “You scratch my back, I scratch yours” gets a whole new meaning when Human-Human Interface, our mind-controlling device, enters the stage! Is it “I use your hand to scratch my back” now?
Over these past few months, we’ve been busy spreading the word to other corners of the planet too. From our old friends in Odessa, TX to the far-away Seoul, South Korea where we delivered some gear and taught neuroscience to North Korean refugees.
Do you have somewhere you think we should visit? Feel free to ping us on Twitter!