How cool would it be if your current headphones could actively improve your daily productivity and well-being?

This reality might not be that far away! Wearable EEG systems are continuously being developed to monitor brain activity and support IT-users' workload, flow and fatigue in everyday life. However, so far, many of these developments promise a lot and deliver little. Importantly, functionality claims are rarely backed by scientific publication. To make these research practices more open and the technologies more available to people around the world, we have recently developed a headphone-based EEG system entirely out of 3D-printed and open-source components: https://github.com/MKnierim/openbci-headphones 

In this thesis, you can contribute to the improvement of this system by identifying a feature that can be improved and develop and test an innovative solution for it. Possible topics can include (but are not limited to):

• Evaluating the systems PPG sensor for sensing heart beats around the ear
• Testing the systems new active noise cacnellation (ANC) feature
• Adding a battery power status indicator
• Identifying sensor innovations from the literature that could be added soon
• Adding cool interaction features or sensors (feedback systems, lights, displays, or similar)

 If you have any questions about the topic beforehand, please contact Michael Knierim (michael.knierim∂kit.edu).