Today at 5pm is our formal acceptance test. Signifying the end of development on the Bright Ideas attraction.

It’s been almost eight months since we first talked with the Ontario Government about creating a thought controlled computing installation for their pavilion at the Vancouver Olympics.

In that time we’ve worked tens of thousands of hours with almost 25 brilliant designers, developers, engineers and project managers to take this project off the page and into the pavilion and we couldn’t be happier with the end result.

The back room is a predictable flurry of activity with last minute fixes and tweaking happening while the food and beverage staff are being trained over by the bar.

There’s one week left til opening day, and the 17 day extravaganza of camaraderie and friendly competition that is the Olympics. You can definitely feel the energy changing. Huge areas are closed off for the immense crowds that will soon be filling the streets, and brightly coloured banners and signs are starting to cover every building in sight.

It’s going to be exciting and amazing, and we really can’t wait. Be sure to tune into our live streams of the remote sites and the pavilion here at www.interaxon.ca/featured_project from Feb 12th to 28th, 10am to 8pm PST (1pm to 11pm EST.)

Another reason why Animaniacs was the smartest cartoon on TV:



In other news it’s been another exciting day here in Vancouver. We’ve been working hard to improve the experience in the last few days before launch. The security guards gave us a warning that staying in the pavillion until 4am requires special authorization. Guess we better start on the paperwork!

I’m constantly amazed at the progress the developers make in an evening. Getting to watch them work is a real perk in this job. Their ability to turn a crazy idea (i.e. levitating chair or brianwave-controlled slot car) into a working demo always leaves me a little speechless.

Things are looking really great. I remember when it was amazing that we could control the CN Tower at all. And then we could control it with brainwaves. And then from Vancouver. It never quite gets old though. At least once I day I stop and look around and am so happy and excited to be part of this project. Then it’s back to answering emails, coordinating press interviews, finalizing materials for print and getting 12 people to move in the same direction for another few hours.

The enthusiastic response we’ve gotten from the press, their readers and the internet at large has been overwhelming and heartwarming, so thanks! After months of having to keep this all a secret, it’s such a joy to let the world know about it and to reconnect with all the exciting parts of this project.

It’s 2:00am PST here, and I should probably get to bed. I can get to the rest of the emails tomorrow.

It’s been a few days since the lid came off this thing and we’ve been able to talk openly about our secret project. One of the more exciting consequences of that is today’s launch of our new website. Look around, let me know what you think at trevor@interaxon.ca! Big thanks + love to Pantea Razzaghi and the rest of our web team who have been putting in insane hours getting this ready for today.

The media’s getting excited too, and we’ve been fielding lots of requests for interviews, hi-res pictures and juicy gab about brianwave controlled computing. So far we’ve been been on CTV, CP24 and in the Globe and Mail. At least that what people have told me on facebook. We’re so busy here that we barely have time to sleep, let alone scour the networks for soundbites.

Everything is coming together great though. We’re installed and looking ready to pass our acceptance test with flying colours. Our marketing materials have all been ordered and are on their way here, and we just nailed down our host training module last night. One thing about running a start-up, there is no lack of things to keep you busy. It’s kind of like doing sound, tending bar and playing in the band all at once in a club that never closes.

Please do send some feedback about the site. We’d love to know what you love about it, and even what you don’t love as much.

We wanted to share with you the origins of how our Thought Controlled Computing company came to be.

The research that laid the foundation of the company came out of Steve Mann’s lab in Toronto. He and his graduate student at the time (now PhD) James Fung pioneered the BCI that launched InteraXon.

The early technology was innovated in close partnership with Montreal company Thought Technology, the manufacturer of sensor equipment and amplification technology. They have proven to be leading manufacturers in Canada’s thought controlled computing space

Making (brain) waves beyond the holiday season: Toronto start-up turns thought-controlled technology into fun, interactive products & events

TORONTO, Dec. 10 /CNW/ - Brain-controlled games are among 2009's hottest holiday toys, but the minds behind Canadian upstart and MaRS client InteraXon have been pushing the frontier of brainwave technology through their engaging products and events for years...

Check out the full text here.

At the Tsinghua Unversity in Beijing, researchers created a system that lets people control Bubble Bobble with their brainwaves.



This uses induced brainwaves, which is a little different than how we do things, but anything that lets you play Nintendo with your mind is fine by us!

Here's an interesting one: Aritst Lucas Maassen recently rendered his own brainwaves into couch format:

First he recorded an EEG of his brainwaves over a period of three seconds. The information was then sent to a C&C milling machine that cut the peaks and valleys of his EEG into some soft foam. which he then made into a couch!

You can see the brainwave sofa here or check out the rest of his site.