The light-bulb idea metaphor (a light bulb above someone's head that appears or switches on when they think of an idea) is widespread in the literature and popular culture. But, to the best of our knowledge, nobody has ever built an actual device that implements this function. Therefore we present the "Inventometer", a fun and playful wearable device that measures and displays epiphanometric data to a real light bulb, so its wearer and others in the environment are alerted to "aha! moments" ("eureka moments"), epiphanies, inventions, and idea formation in the brain/mind of the wearer. It senses brainwave signals indicative of epiphanies, and indicates to others a continuously varying epiphanometric quantity by adjusting the light output of the bulb. It uses simple machine learning on EEG (electroencephalogaph) brainwave signals to automatically detect and quantify the novelty of ideas formed in the brain. Long exposure photographs — made while one or more Inventometer wearers walk around a room — result in a Phenomenal Augmented Reality (Augmented Reality of or pertaining to physical phenomena and phenomenology). In particular, these "epiphanographs", over time, indicate what sorts of things in an environment tended to stimulate epiphanies and to what degree — epiphanogrammetry as a possible new field of study. Brain Games are designed so multiple people can compete using their minds much like people competing using their bodies (e.g. arm wrestling). The "brightest" people in a room become visible by way of their epiphanographs. But with their wearable display bulbs glowing brightly, they also serve as a distraction to each other, thus introducing a richly complex and competitive collective biofeedback gaming space. The device is meant to appeal to people of all ages, from children to university students, and thus forms a good teaching for making skills, science, and engineering (e.g. power electronics, 3D printing, etc.). It is also an ongoing research project.
['Steve Mann', 'Ryan E. Janzen', 'Hang Wu', 'Max Hao Lu', 'Nitin Guleria']
Bright ideas: A wearable interactive "Inventometer" (brainwave-based idea display)