Inspiration
We wanted to beat procrastination and gain our focus back. Deciding on using biotechnology to solve this problem: we reached out to professors and researchers asking to borrow their BCIs. We came up with a neat solution to measure our focus through hacking through a MUSE BCI device we got our hands on.
Our invention will make focusing more transparent and more reflective for people with ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorders so they can stay accountable and disciplined to themselves.
What it does
Our device: Focus Band measures the Theta and Beta waves in the brain through the MUSE device and with a backend, it converts the frequency into known thresholds for focus to display on the front-end what percentage of focus a user has after attempting our "Focus session."
Our front-end also produces a graph of the user's focus and advice on whether or not they should take a break - keeping themselves accountable and beating procrastination of the brain quite literally through neuroscience and technology.
How we built it
We hacked a MUSE device to gather its raw data and then pipelined the raw data to a back-end where through conditions, the program concludes the statistics to display. After the statistics have been processed, the results are displayed on the front end.
Challenges we ran into
Getting the BCI to run and display the right results was so far the hardest challenge we have run into at any hackathon we have been to. In the end, through two all-nighters of work, we persevered.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're exceptionally proud of making a device that accurately measures our focus - something we have tested on ourselves and Xander's parents. We are excited that this technology will one day help change attention disorders and bring back attention is a distracted world of overstimulation and distractions.
What we learned
We learned to work with whatever tasks on hand than what we prefer. Hardeep doesn't know the front-end so he learned. Xander didn't know React.js, but we learned and persevered towards a goal we were motivated to pursue with a firing passion.
What's next for FocusBand
In the long-term vision, we hope FocusBand will eventually be able to give users "Break Prompts" with an estimated break they should take with a timer. Users can accept or decline this recommendation. We hope this will eventually replace the Pomodoro Timer and branch our product to even general population willing to improve their focus.
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