Naxon Fabulari is a new initiative for developing forms of communication or control through brain-computer interface technology for people with disabilities. With the help of a low-cost EEG device, which in addition to capturing brain waves can detect facial movements, a person can associate a pattern with a message or action. In this way a person can communicate a phrase or control connected external devices through a gesture.

Within the framework of an agreement with ORT University (Montevideo, Uruguay), a team of computer science engineering students developed an advanced proof of concept for this initiative: Diego Klappenbach, Juan Ruiz and Mauricio Pastorino. This app can be used with products from the Interaxon Muse line (Muse 1, Muse 2 and Muse S). 

The main screen of the application is the dashboard. This view is for the purpose of reminding the user which sentence they have for each gesture, to shape the communication they want. Currently six combinations have been implemented, and as the number of actions expands, the summary will be even more relevant. For situations where the headband is not available to execute the gestures, playback is offered through a button placed to the right of the cards that represent the association of the gesture and its sentence.

The user with the headband placed and linked to the application, can begin to perform muscle activations, or cervical movements to produce the voice outputs of the sentences associated with the gesture. Playback is done through the speaker. In turn, cervical extension is reserved (tilt the head backwards, looking up), as direct access to the selection of profiles. The user without navigating to another module, in addition to reproducing sentences with gestures, can also navigate between the available profiles, select the desired one, and operate with it. 

Carousel Support is a plugin for activating gestures from the Dashboard. On the main page, up to six sentences can be activated, and in turn, from the same place you can exchange the available profiles by interacting through the headband. Each user can create up to six profiles per account, meaning that 36 sentences can be easily accessed from the Dashboard. Depending on the use case, the combination of sentences per profile can depend on the context in which the user is. For example, the set of sentences used by the user in a clinic may differ from those used in an educational center as well as in a social event. Well, it is expected that of the total number of sentences that you have available, not all of them are applicable in the context in which you find yourself. An alternative may be to modify your profiles online to adapt the sentences based on the moment you are in.

The combination of Dashboard and Support Carousel, allows the user to generate very specific profiles and at the same time, enjoy the generality of the expressions of habitual use. The Support Carousel is subdivided into three carousels. The first of them brings together the sentence subjects: I, you, he, she, we, and we. Next, in a vertical arrangement, is the carousel of predicates. It is worth noting that depending on the chosen pronoun, the application automatically conjugates the words presented in the following carousels to favor the syntax and, therefore, the understanding of what is stated. Finally, the last carousel fulfills a double function. Based on the chosen predicate, its elements can take one of two forms: verbs or adverbs. This distinction is resolved automatically by the application without the need for the user to intervene in the definition. In case the user composes a sentence that allows the modification of the verb, the third and last carousel updates its elements in adverbs to enrich the statement. Otherwise, it collects and presents a set of verbs.

If you are interested in exploring Naxon Fabulari, using EEG for communications, just connect with us and we will help you: contact@naxonlabs.com