The long awaited Mindtooth© brain (EEG) headset is now available at BrainSigns laboratories.
It has been developed following a user-centred design approach, with the aim of avoiding any discomfort for the user, ensuring a high wearability, maintaining at the same time a high signal quality. This is achieved thanks to the hardware embedded in the Mindtooth headset, developed by Brain Products, a leading company in the field of EEG recording systems and a consortium member of the Mindtooth project.
The Mindtooth headset, named Touch, takes its name from the light caress it provides on the head. It’s equipped with 8 recording electrodes, 5 frontal and 3 parietal sites, plus reference and ground on each mastoid. In particular, the front part of the headset hosts five EEG sensors and is designed to fit the user’s forehead. To maximize comfort, it is elastic and made of a combination of flexible materials. It also includes removable padding made of PU foam to further improve comfort. The rear part hosts the ground and reference sensors, the three parietal EEG sensors and the EEG amplifier. The ground and reference sensors are fitted to two separate “fingers” and are available in two different sizes on the mastoids.Their position makes it possible to use glasses and headphones while wearing the headset. The three parietal EEG sensors’ “fingers” are designed as a separate component that is fitted and fixed to the rear part of the headset. Each “finger” is designed to adapt to the users’ head shape and the parietal EEG sensors’ holders are extended and fitted with a rotating end-piece “a finger tip” in order to make it easier to adapt to all head shapes, part the hair and ensure optimal scalp contact.
The EEG amplifier, the “Click-On Amp” is connected to the Headset structure by two magnetic connectors to make it easy to attach and detach.
Here is a video showing the Touch Mindtooth Headset
The EEG sensors technology employed the Mindtooth Touch (i.e. water-based EEG electrodes-“WET”) was intensively tested during the first validation activities of the Mindtooth project. The effectiveness of these sensors in providing a high-quality EEG signal, and consequently reliable neurometrics of users' mental and emotional states was compared with the gold-standard in neuroscience research, represented by gel-based Ag/AgCl electrodes-“GEL”. Results showed a high correlation between EEG-based features derived from the two technologies and the WET-based technology demonstrated the same ability as the GEL-based electrodes to discriminate Workload, Stress and Vigilance states in real contexts (see figures below).
The Mindtooth Touch was also presented at the 19th European Airline Training Symposium (EATS 2021), an aviation tradeshow that brings together the industry’s leading professionals to promote safety and share best practices in pilot training and cabin crew training. More than 20 aviation professionals had the opportunity to fit the headset during a live demo titled “Come to see real-time assessment of human factors by Measuring your brain activity”. All participants highlighted the ease of fitting and the high comfort during the demonstration.
As a next step many Touch Headsets and the related Mindtooth framework will be deployed in real contexts over the next few months for the final validation of Mindtooth system as a whole, before its official entry into the market.
