We participated at the IoT expo at Ridehuset during IoT week 2019 in Aarhus. [ iotweek.org/iot-week-2019-aarhus/ ]
Mindreading is all the rage
We brought our Muse headbands to the expo as a way to start a conversation about how quickly we generate data, and just how incredibly much our brain creates in no time. [ choosemuse.com/ ]
The headbands was originally created to help with meditation training. They measure different brainwaves, while providing audio feedback through an app, indicating if the right meditative state of mind is achieved.
In reality they are relatively cheap EEG devices, and as such scientist have been using them to conduct experiments. This has seen them developing an app that can plot the data coming from the muse headband, using different graphs and raw numbers. This is the app we use to show, just how quickly we generate data with our mind. While the meditation app is used to lure people in and listen to us talk endlessly about data.
Meditation 9 to 5
The expo was visited by a great number of school classes from the greater Aarhus area. Who were all very interested in trying out meditation while getting their mind read. In actuality the interest was so great that we had long lines in front of our booth.
We had a lot of interesting conversations about relaxation, point scoring in the muse app and how relaxation can be more than an activity.
While a lot of our visitors were a bit to young for the entirety of our data agenda, we had a lot of interesting conversations with their teachers, and other participants at the expo.
And while the age of some of our participants might not have been entirely compatible with a hard data conversation. We had a lot of interesting conversations about relaxation, point scoring in the muse app and how relaxation can be more than an activity. Relaxation might be a state of mind, and not just watching youtube videos on the couch.
The muse headband and the data the children are immediately presented with (audio cues), allows us to somewhat share a mindstate. Having a common starting point, or at least, a common reference. We can discuss relaxation and what it is for us, to a much greater degree. Something that might be very needed in this time of constant input.
DataDemocracy 