Scientific Outreach with Teegi, a Tangible EEG Interface to Talk about Neurotechnologies
This work addresses the problem of public engagement and education in neurotechnologies for general audiences, offering an interactive and tangible approach to scientific outreach.
The researchers tackled the challenge of making neurotechnologies accessible for public education by developing Teegi, a tangible EEG interface that visualizes brain activity in real time through an interactive avatar. The result is an engaging tool that allows attendees to directly manipulate the avatar's limbs to explore brain processes, effectively introducing concepts like brain-computer interfaces.
Teegi is an anthropomorphic and tangible avatar exposing a users' brain activity in real time. It is connected to a device sensing the brain by means of electroencephalog-raphy (EEG). Teegi moves its hands and feet and closes its eyes along with the person being monitored. It also displays on its scalp the associated EEG signals, thanks to a semi-spherical display made of LEDs. Attendees can interact directly with Teegi -- e.g. move its limbs -- to discover by themselves the underlying brain processes. Teegi can be used for scientific outreach to introduce neurotechnologies in general and brain-computer interfaces (BCI) in particular.