Capstone Project: Prototyping & Feasibility Studies

Feasibility Questions:

• Will my project require a formal IRB review and approval?

To address my first feasibility question, I have continued to follow up with my university’s IRB department, and while I am still awaiting my determination letter, I do have a talent/media release form created to equipped and at my disposal for my interviews. While there was not technically an experiment created to address this question, the answer to this question is still in progress.

• Which app should I use for data collection, and how much data will I collect, and how will I filter it?

In order to answer this question, I had to go through several apps available from NeuroSky’s online app store to find the apps that would best fit my needs in terms of their ability to collect and export data in a readable format. I narrowed it down to three main apps that I decided would be most reasonable to test out including: Excellent Brain EEG Visualizer, Brainwave Visualizer, and NeuroExperimenter. Of those three, I’ve included my notes below:

For my final decision in terms of what apps I am going to use for the collection of the neuro-data, I decided on using NeuroExperimenter to collect data of the interviewee during the session, and using the Brainwave Visualizer on myself during post-production when I am listening/editing the interview to then overlay in the future print. Since I cannot use more than one app with the sensor at a time, I decided to prioritize the data collection on my subjects and the visualizer on myself to incorporate both elements.

• How long will it take me to code a p5.js patch to create base visualizations for the data?

To answer my third question, while I had some initial hiccups in starting my coding file for reading the data, I quickly made progress to create a prototype patch that can read and plot sample data points that I will then be easily able to manipulate to use as the baseline for the prints. I’ve included below a picture of the sample data plotted, and of course when using actual interview data I will match the color palette to the individual and their stories based off of their initial color preferences and my own artistic decision. I will continue to play with the scaling of my canvas, and the scale of the points themselves with potential variances in size, stroke, etc.

• How much footage am I going to sort through and keep for the final video from each interview?

After conducting the interview, it was roughly 35 minutes long, meaning I will have approximately the same amount to sort through for each of my five interviewees, for a total of roughly 3 hours of footage and audio to sort through for the final project. Of each interview, I am still unsure of how much I am going to keep, but judging based off the quality of my first interview, I want to keep at least 10 minutes of audio from this individual in particular, so my final video will most definitely be much longer than originally planned if I keep approximately 10 minutes from each individual. This element is still undecided, and will be entirely dependent on footage I am able to collect and time spend editing.

• How accessible will the heart rate sensor data be to export, and in what format?

My final experiment included my use of the heart rate sensor, in which I first placed it on myself and with the use of the app, was able to easily collect the data, and this app in particular includes an exportable PDF of the report after the sensor has been removed, making it very easy for me to have access to the data collected.

Method

Here’s a list of all equipment and software I am using for data collection and production below:

• NeuroSky Brainwave Sensor

• NeuroExperimenter

• Brainwave Visualizer

• Excel

• P5.js

• Wellue Bluetooth Pulse Oximeter

• ViHealth

• Zoom F1 Field Recorder

• Canon EOS Rebel T5

• Audacity

• Davinci Resolve

• Adobe Premiere Pro

• Runway