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Nicolas A. Baginsky
Report 6/15 |
it finally happened. we managed to conduct the second experiment.
last friday, it was so cold and rainy that while first peeping
out the door that morning, i had the feeling no single test-
or pressperson would show up. i was wrong - right on time the
first (and only) journalist arrived. during that friday and also
saturday afternoon we had four very different persons "on the
couch". this time, during the experiment, the probands did not
sit on a chair but lie on a comfortable chaiselonge. their skin
conductivity and muscle activity of their middle finger on the
unpreferred hand (left hand for right handed and vice versa) was
recorded. also brain activity was analysed using Fast Fourrier
Transformation. two channel of that spectrum analysis (alpha
waves and eye activity) were used to control my little camera
robot. the camera image was presented to the test person through
I-glasses. this live image was also analysed through a very simple
device:
four photoresistors were taped to the screen of a video monitor.
these analogue signals were digitised by a basic stamp that was
connected through a serial link to a PC. all these input channels
(thirteen altogether) were connected to a Kohonen network ( i
named it HARRIET) that was trained twice with (almost) every person.
in the first session the test person was not given any information.
they
were only asked to tell us their hypotheses on how the system
works. in the
second course we explained to them how the connection between
their brain
and the robot works. a three-dimensional image generated by the
kohonen
network was recorded for every training step and later assembled
into
little quicktime movies. we also recorded the entire data stream
plus the
three channel HARRIET output in midi format and we took screen
shots of the
skin resistance and muscle-activity curves.
the camera robot was mounted in another room in between two shelves
that
were filled with all kinds of objects. in some positions the camera
got
very close to the shelves and the partly nervous camera movements
created
slightly stressful but also boring visual sensations. the second
test
person complained about a feeling of "see-sickness" and we had
to end his
session after only twelve minutes. his skin conductivity rose
in an
exponential curve but immediately cooled down when we started
talking with
him about his experience. he had also participated in our first
experiment
and he probably suffered from the decreased possibilities to directly
control the camera. he also showed extremely strong muscle activity
in his
"A"-session when he was not informed about the control mechanism.
the two other male participants also displayed rising skin conductivity.
only the female test person produced chaotic ups and downs for
that
parameter, but this might be a result of her hyperactive nature
and her
personal circumstances. she is an artist and was preparing an
opening for
the next day. only the last visitor did not try to control the
movements of
the robot with force. he simply relaxed and by doing so allowed
his brain
and the robot to float in all directions. he is also an artist
and a very
"cool" person in general.
all participants commented or even complained about the images
in some way
(too boring, too hectic, not motivating enough ...). examples
of their
hypotheses and comments can also be found on the documentation
site.
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