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What is EEG?
Electroencephalography (EEG) is the science of measuring brainwave patterns produced by the brain in response to internal or external stimuli. Every event, behaviour or feeling, from hearing your name called, being immersed in a video game to growing frustrated with a tin opener produces millions of tiny electrical impulses as brain cells communicate with each other. This activity is picked up by electrodes placed directly on the scalp. It is then amplified and processed into measures of real-time emotional states and reactions that can be visually graphed and mapped.
History
EEG is a multidisciplinary field, having been born in the early twentieth century and developed through the combined efforts of physicists, psychiatrists and neurologists all interested in the inner workings of the brain. The world’s first EEG machine was introduced in 1926 by revolutionary German neuropsychiatrist Hans Berger. In its earliest, crudest form, the outputs were thought to foretell everything from what kind of marriage counselling was required to identifying episodes of female ovulation!
Thankfully EEG has come a long way since then. In the late 1950's W.Gray Walter significantly furthered the acceptance of EEG by demonstrating that resting state brain waves were different to those produced during a mental task that required concentration. From here modern neuroscience has grown and furthered our understanding of brain activity and the neural basis of emotional states. Today EEG is an established, respected and validated method of scientific and medical investigation, and is being increasingly applied in commercial market research.
EEG's main uses today are in medical diagnosis and neurobiological research. It can be used to detect abnormal brainwave patterns present in coma, epilepsy, sleep and other neuroelectrical disorders. It also has the benefit of being able to locate damaged tissue or the brain region responsible for activity. Before the neuroimaging tools of MRI and CT were developed it was commonly used to diagnose tumours and stroke. There is currently much enthusiasm for developing EEG as an assistive technology. It is hoped it will help patients with limited or no motor control to communicate with their carers by controlling a computer interface through thought alone.
Technological Advances
For the first time the technology is practically and commercially accessible and so industries as varied as gaming, user interface, market research and accessibility are all set to benefit.
Systems have traditionally been expensive, bulky, required a large amount of computing power and even an electrically 'noise proofed' environment for testing, posing considerable challenges for those using EEG in research. The participant experience hasn't been much better either, as electrodes are either glued, pasted or taped to the participants scalp, sometimes following some abrasion to make the surface more conductive! More recently increasingly sophisticated technology has allowed EEG to come out of the lab and become more mobile. This has allowed for some access by commercial entities to take the technology instore for market research. However, participants have been required to wear quite intrusive 'swim-cap' style headwear housing the many sensors, be attached to numerous cables in a lengthy calibration process and followed closely by a researcher and their laptop. Clearly this doesn't constitute a very natural shopping experience at all.
The vast leap in EEG technology has resulted in a headset that is no more intrusive than wearing a hands free phone headset the participant can fit themselves. The felt fabric sensors are partially dampened with naturally sterile saline and the 16 sensors transmit wirelessly to a laptop for analysis. This means there is no need for extensive calibration (it takes just a couple of minutes), no messy glue or attached wires and participants can move about freely. It's also easily combined with eye tracking so researchers can pinpoint exactly what the participant was looking at as an emotional state arose or changed.
