Okay so.
I could make a portable EEG and hook it up to a selfmade app. Then it would be simple to hack a fit bit into a stress tracker to gather more data.
Combine all that.data with self reporting and I think I could capture day to day emotional response and regulation.
It would by no means go public as a SmartTracker. It would not go into the mental health sphere. It is purely for my personal hacky studies.
If you were so inclined, you could consider making it an open project eventually -- open hardware specs, open software -- with an AGPL license or something even less corp-friendly -- and then people could track their OWN data, in their OWN studies. :)
(open as in 'released publicly', to clarify -- not 'open' as in 'hey do a bunch of other people wanna come work on it', not everybody's up for that and I wasn't thinking it when I said that -- just to be clear)
@sydneyfalk That's a really interesting idea and I was sort of thinking that way, actually. The purpose of this for me is in a thread I wrote earlier today, as well as aided mindfulness. But! I'm certain it would have many applications.
EEG, heart rate, self reporting
yeah, I could see this being an interesting short-circuit to get around unconsciously building stress responses
how size-variant is EEG equipment? can it be reduced to a single worn sensor, or two? or even clip-on earrings or something?
I should look into this
@sydneyfalk if existing products are to be trusted, it looks like four sensors is the sweet spot.
Hm. Okay -- well, do they need distances?
Because "wear this on your wrist" could give you two right there, I suspect. And if so, and you have "wear this other thing on your other wrist", you've got four contacts.
the problem would be that you'd be working with third-distant information at best, brain activity filtered through the motor cortex, the spine, then the major nerves there
...but on the OTHER hand -- if you had a way to measure nerve activity specific to the motor cortex, that might be useful data in its own right.
and yeah, I realized -- this is BRAIN, not general nerve activity.
maybe a hat, then? or a subtle frame that could be hidden under hair?
(I'm always wondering how to make stuff wearable, anxiety is omnipresent, tools to examine it need to try to be too -- sorry if I seem pushy or if I'm overwriting your own ideas here)
@sydneyfalk those a really good ideas! And I get you on that last bit.
And don t worry about being pushy, I like conversation abo8t this stuff. It's fascinating.
okies! :)
because I slammed a Rockstar this morning and took all my medications as usual and I am apparently on a GRIND of typing O_o
this happened yesterday but with other ingested chemicals, I don't know if it's just two odd days in a row or a genuine trend of some sort yet
@sydneyfalk I getcha haha. I took two red bulls and my meds so I'm pretty manic myself.
OH! no no no, I'm thinking this all wrong.
Okay -- if you wanted to REALLY monitor motor/autonomic feedbacks generally, you'd want the base of the neck, the brainstemish area, where it hooks up to virtually all the systems below the neck, I think? (my neuroanatomy classes were QUITE some time ago, lol)
So then you could monitor cerebral cortex versus motor cortex, and the correlations would be fascinating -- overlaps and non-overlaps alike!
@sydneyfalk Yes! I need to do some reading/talking abt this. I think this would be really useful for my studies.
@sydneyfalk oh I meant an on the head EEG would suffice with four contacts, sorry! I am uninitiated.
I would, naturally, only test this with myself, and consenting adults.