Students of La Salle-URL have created a project that allows Scalextric cars to move via the mental concentration of the users

Two students from La Salle-URL, Enrique Bernalte and Ernest Obach, presented a final project of the Multimedia Degree that measures the power of concentration of users through neural helmets. The project, in collaboration with Richard Hebert, director of the company Bloom, is NeuroScalextric, and has the function to control and move cars in a Scalextric circuit through the mind and concentration. The project consists in the use of a mobile application to receive information from the brain waves sent by a neuronal helmet. The data are sent via WIFI to an electronic circuit designed that then is able to send data to the Scalextric circuit. In this way, users can control the cars in the circuit with their mind; the more concentrated the user is, the faster run the car. Furthermore, it is also possible to provide a boost to the car through a voluntary flicker by the user. The main objective of the project is to promote the field of Neuroscience among the general public, as it is not well known by most people. It also serves to investigate more about the neuroheadset technology and create interfaces with Smartphone instead of with computer. The ultimate goal is to bring NeuroScalextric to the market as low-cost product for all kinds of people that can use it easily. The human brain is composed of neurons that transmit electrical signals that can be detected and outsourced through a neural device (helmet) consists of sensors that read some of the brain waves. For the project, two types of neural helmets were tested: the first EPOC, of the US-Australian company Emotiv, which has 14 electrodes (more powerful than other helmets) but users must train to work with it, and Neurosky Mindwave Mobile, which is much simpler and EEG reading is limited. For NeuroScalextric, they use the latter, as it requires no prior training. In this case, the helmet has two sensors, one connected to the ear and the other to the front, recognizing the orders of the brain. Neuroscalextric  is also a project with an educational component as it allows training and increasing the power of concentration in adults and helps children to learn how to concentrate throughout the game. The value proposition of the project is to be carried out with a smartphone application that sends user data 1 and 2 to the amplifier external signal that moves the car, not a computer, as occurs in most similar projects.