SubConch, a device that creates music with the brain

The technology created with the mind represents one of the areas that grow fastest in the development of it. Controlling things with just mental action, via an EEG device or a wireless connection is not only highly stimulating from a science fiction perspective that it is now real. In some aspects, this is very practical – especially for people with physical disabilities. Moving objects with the mind takes us to a kind of supernatural power. Arthur C. Clarke, British science fiction author, affirms, "A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

               
 Playing this quasi-magical aspect of technology, Mats J. Siversten, a contemporary artist, created a musical instrument played with the mental power. The instrument, combining the archetypal feminine form of the shell, is connected to an EEG band that reads brain waves of the user, in which it controls the audio characteristics. In order to control the sound, you should train a few minutes. Time is also used by this intelligent shell to make a brain profile of the user.

This neuro-instrument is also an art installation and the sounds that are generated through the shell parallel unfold as light pulses showing that light and sound can sometimes be two manifestations of the same transmission. Even though the music that it can be produced by this “music-instrument” does not yet come to the sophistication and richness in sound, you can get it with other devices. SubConch is only the beginning of a device that will open a new dimension, erasing the line between the artist and technology.

The following video is an example of how this device works. It is really interesting to see how a connection between mind and technology can create things that we would never imagine. You have to click here.

 The subConch: mind control musical instrument

What do you think of this instrument? Do you believe that this is a good opportunity for people who cannot play an instrument because they have some kind of disability? 

Numbers, numbers everywhere

Whenever I think of the word science, I imagine scientists wearing a white lab coat. However, science is more than that; science if everything that is around us, it is knowledge in an organized and structured way so we can understand how things work. And if we take a deep look into the concept of science, we may discover different other disciplines that we never thought they were classified as science. For example MATHS. I've never liked maths, but there are a lot of things that are fascinating: how numbers can give us exact answers to certain questions.

In this sense, the Fibonacci Number, which I find amazingly interesting and almost magical, is a sequence of numbers resulting of the addition of the previous number. Let me put this in a clearer way:

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89...........

1+0 = 1              3+2 = 5

1+1 = 2              5+3 = 8

2+1 = 3              8+5 = 13..............

Got it?

Why do I find this so fascinating? mainly because this sequence is EVERYWHERE. It is in nature; in the arrangement of leaves in a stem, pine cones, flowers, even in the reproduction of bees! Let’s look at this sea shell: its shape and size is perfectly proportional to the numerical Fibonacci sequence, in which the numbers 1 - 1-2-3 are part of the base of the sea shell, and the bigger numbers 5-8-13 are part of the largest part of it.

In addition, the sequence can be found in music and paintings. It is fascinating because scientists keep searching for more clues in which we could find the Fibonacci number presence. Maths and nature never stop surprising us!

 

I invite you to listen to Tool - Lateralus, enjoy the music, and count the syllabes of the lyrics, which are in perfect coordination with the first 5 numbers of the sequence.

So, if numbers can explain perfection in nature, can  they explain our purpose on Earth, or were we come from?