On Mapping EEG Information into Music

Abstract

With the rise of ever-more affordable EEG equipment available to musicians, artists and researchers, designing and building a Brain-Computer Music Interface (BCMI) system has recently become a realistic achievement. This chapter discusses previous research in the fields of mapping, sonification and musification in the context of designing a BCMI system and will be of particular interest to those who seek to develop their own. Design of a BCMI requires unique consider-ations due to the characteristics of the EEG as a human interface device (HID). This chapter analyses traditional strategies for mapping control from brain waves alongside previous research in bio-feedback musical systems. Advances in music technology have helped provide more complex approaches with regards to how music can be affected and controlled by brainwaves. This, paralleled with devel-opments in our understanding of brainwave activity has helped push brain-computer music interfacing into innovative realms of real-time musical perfor-mance, composition and applications for music therapy.