User Friendly
Brain-computer interfaces
I imagine that any device kids are accustomed to playing with at home will also engage them in the classroom.
Take, for example, the brain wave-reading headset from NeuroSky Inc., which is the core technology in the popular “Star Wars’’-themed game, The Force Trainer.
The Force Trainer headset contains a forehead EEG sensor that detects the brain waves associated with concentration and triggers a fan to blow a ball toward the top of a clear chamber.
Now NeuroSky is offering the MindWave Education Bundle, which the company is pitching as “exercise equipment for children’s minds.’’ (The MindWave is the first product NeuroSky is marketing directly to consumers.)
The MindWave promises to get kids thinking like scientists and engineers, envisioning new applications for brain-to-computer interfaces for everything from aerospace to assistive technologies for people with physical or cognitive impairments.
Rather than a ball in a tube, those using the MindWave actually manipulate apps, and there are already more than 30 apps and games for the system at NeuroSky’s online store. One, Speed Math, measures a student’s ability to focus while he is learning.
Other apps for the MindWave encourage students to meditate or relax. And in doing so, they are able to change the outcome of games. One of the apps even allows users to change the outcome of a movie by adjusting your mental state.
The MindWave kit (store.neurosky.com/products/mindwave-1) costs about $100.
Microphones
Two devices to improve audio recordings
As I wrote recently, I am a fan of USB microphones from Samson Technologies Corp., and smitten with its retro mics, such as the new Meteor.Blue Microphones’ Yeti Pro is another mic for your desktop music recording or podcasting studio, whose simple outward design belies its digital smarts. Blue is perhaps best known for its Mikey for the iPod — more about another new Mikey is below.
The Yeti Pro is a USB mic for use with Macs and PCs. The bullet-shaped mic records 24-bit audio at up to 192 kHz, a level of detail four times greater than CD audio, according to Blue, and comes with a neat metallic desk stand. (You can use your own mount, if you prefer.) It also offers analog XLRoutput for working with standard studio equipment.
You can use the $249 Yeti Pro (www.bluemic.com) to record voices and instruments in any one of four patterns, depending on where your sources are positioned in your studio space. The mic has a headphone output and volume control button for direct monitoring.
Blue has another mic I am pretty excited about. Called the Mikey for Flip, it automatically adjusts to volumes ranging from whispers to wailing guitar riffs. It promises to record better stereo audio than the mic built into the popular Flip video cameras.
The Mikey for Flip plugs into the Flip’s FlipPort connector, a tripod mount, and its own port for plugging in additional mics.
The battery-powered Mikey for Flip will be available this year, according to Blue.
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.
