It is now safe to turn off your interface

So, it's been a while since I posted anything, and I probably fell off everyone's radar over the past couple years, but I wanted to give a brief explanation.

Once I started getting data for my thesis project, I put everything else on the back burner, including my health. I gained some weight, which wasn't unexpected, but that set off a cascade of problems. Thesis work slowed to a crawl and tasks that usually took a day were taking weeks. What I thought was just mental fog from poor sleep and stress turned out to be one of the most severe cases of sleep apnea my doctor had ever seen.

I took a year to focus on my health, which has been an incredibly slow process, before sitting down to churn out the rest of the thesis document. My advisor went on an extended sabbatical to run a scientific institute in Europe after agreeing to review the document progress, forcing me to finish the whole process through my thesis committee. That process took 2 years, but in July, I (finally) successfully defended my dissertation.

"The document" (Is this considered prior publication?)

That's the VERY short version of the toughest 5 years of my life. Now I have a PhD in Neuroscience from Brown University for work in the field of implantable brain-computer interfaces as part of the BrainGate project and John Donoghue's lab. I am very grateful for all the support I received from students and staff, and especially my thesis committee (David Sheinberg, Leigh Hochberg, Mike Paradiso, and Phil Kennedy).

When people hear the details, they always ask, "Was it worth it?" Much of the experience was incredibly rewarding and I worked alongside many brilliant people. But, having been through it, I could never recommend graduate school to anyone. At least not yet. As with all schooling, the value of the experience is really determined by the opportunities it unlocks. So, when asked if it was a worthwhile endeavor, I always respond, "It depends on what comes next."

Next?

Resume
( Download )

LinkedIn

Email

I'm now looking for industry positions that will take advantage of my background in alternative interfaces, technology, medicine, science, and business. That could mean VR, AR, BCIs, assistive devices, HIDs, etc, but I'm not interested in a traditional post-doc arrangement. The bigger, more complex, and more disruptive the problem, the better.

For others in a similar situation, but with less experience between undergrad and grad school, check out Free the PhD, a project by my friend Vay who also left academia for industry. There's plenty of good advice there regarding the differences between academic and corporate general mindset and communication.

For now, DNI will be placed in suspended animation. It was awesome conversing with all of you here and at conferences and workshops. I will post small status updates from time-to-time, but this will be all for now. Thanks much!

I'm not dead yet!

I think I'll go for a walk now...
I feel happy! I feel happy! I... *thump*

Hey DNI isn't the only thing I've neglected. I haven't even had time to sit down and do my bills, which I realized when my electricity abruptly shut off yesterday at 11am. Whoops!

So just a quick wave hello and a thinking point.

Sleep researchers have been quietly warning about the proliferation of electronic devices (further) damaging our sleep habits. How? Well, we're wired to get sleepy as the sun goes down - less light leads to more melatonin. Light to melanopsin expressing ganglion cells in the retina (and some rods and cones) to the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus (where pacemaker cells reside) to the pineal gland to some rockin melatonin release.

Increase the length of daylight and you stay up late because, after all, the length of the day varies throughout the year. Deprive rats of light and their schedule drifts into what scientists now call the "Grad Student Sleeping Schedule", or around the equivalent to a 26-28 hour day length. Add light and the rats lock back on to a 24 hour schedule.

Why am I mentioning this? The iPad. Touted as the end all be all of ebook readers, the one place it ironically falls short is when you can read it. Not only are LCDs notoriously tough to read in direct sunlight, but reading before bed means exposing this light sensitive circadian rhythm pathway to a slab of light. The iPad is no worse than staring at a computer screen, but E-Ink clearly has a niche here. Sure you need light to read, but a single LED book light isn't anywhere near the number of lumens as the the iPad's screen.

If you do have an iPad, fear not. Most ebook reading apps have come ability to adjust colors or brightness, so be cognizant of the idea, since most people, including myself, love displays with high contrast ratios.

DNI goes Hollywood

Well, not really. But, I did help a couple friends with a short film project that was accepted to the Cannes Film Festival. Yeah, THAT Cannes. While it isn't as amazing as getting a judged feature in, it's still a crazy awesome opportunity, so here I am.

For those interested, the short is called Hushed and is a psychological thriller based around the idea of choice and free will. We used a religious theme, a group of folks going door-to-door witnessing for their unspecified religious sect, but isn't about, or pro, or con, religion. Since shorts are designed to either sell the story or the production group, there are a bunch of decisions you have to make regarding content. You want to show an understanding of the film making process, the business, and the showcase some creative talent. We really did do this in spades. The story is left open at the end, even though you generally have the illusion of thinking you know what it means. The main character remains a blank slate the whole way through, even though most people are sure they could describe him at the end (and these descriptions aren't consistent from person-to-person based on our polling, and people thought they were accurate in their descriptions). Basically, we played on biases heavily.

The religious theme was to create an immediate relationship between viewer and characters - it doesn't matter if you are a bible thumper or Richard Dawkins. You can root for them or against them. In a way, it is a perfect expose on innate bias. If you want to hate the characters and think they're screwed in the end, that's possible. If you love them, but think they got screwed and that the message is confrontational, you can think that. If you love them, and think they work it all out in the end, yup, there's that. The film is a product, and as a product, I think it rocked.

On the downside, we had nowhere near enough time or money to really do what we did. I mean, we did finish, but the timetable was so rushed that we couldn't do many takes of scenes. Shooting conditions, basically, left much to be desired, and a better schedule could have resulted in a better overall film. The result is some amateurish looking bits. But, we got through it. Also, while the actors and actresses did their best, the levels of experience varied greatly. That with the ramped up schedule means they are probably not portrayed as performing at the best of their ability. Awesome folks, though, and they stuck through the whole deal like champs. I know there are some scenes that could have been better, but there was just no time.

So, what did I do? Well, I was one of the 5 writers of the story and screenplay. I helped with a good deal of the technical aspects, was on set for every shoot (except one make up shoot), co-casted the talent, set photography, and basically odds and ends stuff. I was supposed to manage the post-production, but that fell suddenly and at the same time as major lab events began unfolding. Same goes for the website, which I started (the current one is the early alpha version, but unannounced deadlines and ramp up in lab work kept me from moving too far on that. So, I've been a busy beaver.

Check out the movie's site, if you're interested, and if you happen to be in Cannes, France or nearby and want to meet up for cafe', feel free to drop me a line.

Redesign notes

I got a little distracted by... ooo shiny thing over there... oh sorry... by general web design stuff and stumbled across the new Blogger 'In Draft' features (basically Google Apps for Blogger). The new design is still a work in progress, for instance, I'm not wild about the background pic, but it's a little taste of things to come. Just a few things to note on here now:

• New social bookmarking links on the right - these will likely be expanded and changed slightly, but you get the idea. Easily add DNI to Delicious, Digg, Facebook, etc. NOTE: To avoid the massive amounts of spam this could generate, please add a personal message whenever a service allows it, so I know you are a human, or at least partly human.
• New tag cloud spinning ball thingy. I like the way it looks, but I'll probably replace it with something that takes up the same amount of space and doesn't have the processor overhead involved in this neat little ditty.
• News feed - I'm forgetting which things I said I would 'star' versus 'share' in Google Reader, so for now it is set to my Starred items. Again, this will soon be replaced by a more snazzy widget that is more multi-functional. But I'd like to get the rss feed items up there so that visitors can keep up on the news items I've noted.
• More complex layout - Personal/contact info at the top, minimal. News/feeds in a wider column format. Utility links, like archives, in narrowed columns within the right column. There's some tweaking to be done, like too much padding and combining elements, but it's pretty close to what I want.
• Color! Yeah, I know. Shocking! I like blue.

Anyhow, enjoy! And feel free to leave any comments if you like certain things or you spot any major problems. The site renders fine in Firefox 3.6, Chrome 5, and mostly in IE (tag cloud fails to render, so another reason to replace that).

Visual Studio and other Microsoft programming tools free

For students, that is. Nevertheless, it does include the brand-spanking new Visual Studio 2010 Pro, which, if your university has annoying IT/software access policies like Brown, can mean less frustration for you. So far I've procured 3 copies of Windows 7 Pro x64, Visual Studio 2008/2010, and Expression Studio 3 for $30 (cost of a student IEEE membership). And there's still plenty more stuff available to play with should I suddenly become inspired.

The weird thing is that Brown University has an MSDNAA agreement (the MSDN Academic Alliance program, which allows schools to provide free and deeply discounted MS software to students). In fact, we have 4+ agreements! Check if your school has a sane policy in place. Here, I'm a grad student in the Dept of Neuroscience, working in a lab that's part of the Engineering Dept. Somehow, I qualify for almost nothing, as far as these MSDNAA memberships go. Oh, wait. I can get a free copy of Windows XP! Woo! The school pays me, through grants to the lab, but I don't qualify as an employee or staff member. Fair enough. But I don't qualify for the CS Dept or Engineering Dept programs because I'm not taking any classes in the departments. I could TA, but even then I'm not technically enrolled. I've fired off a few hot-headed emails, but the responses have been the usual Brown hand-waving/"Wait until we start the Program"/"We're talking with people about that" types. It was easier for me to sign up for the IEEE and hunt down offers like this, rather than deal with my own school, which still gets paid $45k/year for tuition. Amazing.

Aaaanyhow, get yer software at the Microsoft DreamSpark site.

If you're not a student, there are 'Express' versions of many Visual Studio tools available for free. These lack MSDN Library access, which is a great thing to have, as well as 64-bit compilers and some of the more powerful tools, but they're free, legit, and lack alot of the bloat you would usually just throw into a new install. (Am I going to be using SQL Remote Doppleganger USB Ninja FlipFlap elements? I dunno. Meh, just install all of it.) Get them here.

iPhone app worthy of "WOW!" and a Chrome fix

They thought it wouldn't get through the mysterious Apple approval process, but Opera Mini is officially available for (free) download at the App Store. And boy is it a whole new ball game for regular ole 3G (non-3GS) owners. It's friggin blazing fast. It feels like my iPhone did when I got it - instantly launches, instantly renders the page, and just a great experience all around. The only downside is that your bookmarks don't automatically sync. I'm betting there's some type of limited access to user info, like bookmarks, that Apple prohibits, but that's totally speculation. There is syncing built in, but only to an Opera account, so I'll have to look into ways of getting that to sync with Firefox or Chrome. The desktop Opera app is actually very good, and similarly speedy. Alas, every time I try to stray away from Firefox I end up running back for the add ons. But, definitely worth checking out if you haven't.

(And as an aside, if you have Firefox on your PC, get this add-on. You're welcome!)

Next up, Google Chrome. I've been using Chrome for DNI related stuff and Firefox for my everyday browser. One thing that had been driving me NUTS was that using my mouse's 'back' button jumped me back two pages instead of one. Every friggin time. Maddening!

So, a little ninja intuition after a hearty googling returned plenty of people with the problem, but no solutions that worked for me, and I figured out how to fix this issue. This might not work for everyone, but I figured that there were 500+ page forum threads on the topic and a few people might be helped by this.

The problem for me was that my mouse (Logitech G9) had the 'Back' and 'Forward' commands bound to the Back and Forward buttons. And the problem with that is...? It appears that Chrome will detect that you have a multibutton mouse and execute the back and forward commands if the appropriate button is pressed. BUT, somewhere in the process of drivers, mouse software (SetPoint 5 or 6 in my case), and Chrome handling mouse events, the button press is detected as a 'back button press' AND 'execute the back command'. In other words, Chrome says, "Hey! That's a spiffy mouse! I'll hook into that button and do what comes natural." But, the Logitech software says, "I don't know what's going on, and I don't care. All I know is that when you hit that button, I send the 'back dat ass up' command." You hit the button, Chrome backs up a page, and the mouse software sends the back command, making Chrome back up another page.

The solution: bind the mouse button to GenericButton4 (for back) and 5 (for forward), or the equivalent in your mouse's software. It might even be listed as 'no function' or 'do nothing' or 'default'. If you use the Back binding in other programs, this can be a pain because it forces you to choose whether Chrome works or your other programs work.

So, try getting Chrome to work and then go about using your PC as normal. If you're missing the back command in some programs, you have a couple options.

• If you have a mouse with customizable software, like the Logitech SetPoint software, make a special profile for Chrome, set the mouse buttons accordingly, and use application switching detection. This is what I ended up doing.
• If you have a tilt scroll wheel, the kind that lets you scroll left and right, you probably don;t use the function (I've had the function on my mice for about 5 years and have used it about a dozen times total). Rebind the left right scroll to forward and back or genericbutton4 and 5.
• You can try searching out some freeware, like this program: X-Mouse (note: I've never tried this, so no idea if it will blow up your computer and eat your children)
• AutoHotkey might be a decent option if nothing is working and you're minutes from a a Chrome Navigation Bug Induced Triple Shotgun Homicide. Much more technical, but I would bet the actual script would be pretty simple.
• Search out a registry tweak, though if the above didn't help this probably won't either.

Hope that helps someone out there!

Excellent, picture-packed review of prosthetics

Not an academic review, but it you ever need a picture for a presentation, there are plenty to nab here.

Powerful Prosthetics: The Ultimate Integration of Design and Technology (WebUrbanist)

Interface news avalanche

While I've been too busy to post, hopefully you've taken a gander at the various DNI RSS feeds. Right? Well, if you haven't been keeping up, the HCI/interface world has been a non-stop flurry of exciting and interesting innovations.

Why all the excitement? Three things.

One, battery technology and device efficiency have gotten to the point where rich media on portable devices doesn't drain the power before you're done thinking, "Hey, I'd like to experience some rich media content right now?"

Two: The lines between every traditional computer category are collapsing all around us. Your phone is a slim client, your ebook reader is a netbook, your htpc is a nettop, your desktop is always connected and serving up content, up is down, down is left, cats and dogs are living together! And all this requires that we think a little differently about how we handle, view, sort, and access our delicious data.

And Three: Ohhhh how much data we have! And it's cheap to store. And for the price of a 14" CRT in 1993, you can grab a high def 60" mega-monitor (okay, you'd have to get it second hand and last year's model, but still...) In other words, we have more sand and bigger sandbox to play in.

So, enjoy!

Bipolar happy paranoia

I know, I know. No posts, no Super Paper Fridays, no random techno-babble. I feel I owe the folks that check in from time to time an explanation. So, here goes...

Personal issues abound.

I've had a disturbingly high number of family members pass away in the last 6 months, including 2 grandparents. I was extremely close with one, and the other was the last immediate family member from that entire half of the family (so that adds estate issues into the mix). If that wasn't enough, my mother has recently had some serious health problems, as did my aunt (the mother issues are just in the early phases, the aunt issues are hopefully over). So, if I'm not working, I'm thinking too much about all the other chaos, and generally not feeling the 'will to blog'.

Lab excitement and frustration

I REALLY want to talk about the experiments I'm running and the really, really interesting data I'm collecting, but I can't. It is isn't clinical trial related concerns, it's the sense that I've got something big and want to be extra careful at all stages of analysis and interpretation.

My super-secret project (shhhh!) is going along swimmingly. It took me about two years to assemble it conceptually, and (prepare for some ridiculous bragging) the resulting flow is simple, elegant, practical, and far reaching for the field. It doesn't interrupt any ongoing studies that others might be running, requires minimal dedicated time (a major issue when you have a dozen people trying to schedule their experiments with the limited number of subjects), and has an early lynch pin (if it was going to have major problems, they would have been apparent within the first session). The setup requires no major alterations to what's already in place and can be adapted easily as the underlying tech changes, but is separate enough from other projects to allow me to claim my own niche. As the results come in and we begin thinking about their implications, the effort put into this branch of the grander scheme can be fed back into other projects. Perfessionally (personally+professionally), it has given me the flexibility to essentially dust off some of my old skills and gain the experience of pushing through nearly every step of the system, rather than just making a minor change to something that already existed. So, yeah, I'm very happy with how the science is working out so far. Hopefully I can start to dish out some actual details as the papers start to flow.

Information visualization abomination: Matlab

Yes, I know it rocks for matrix operations and fast prototyping. I try to think about how nice it is to easily plot simple graphs, really I do. BUT, I would like to stab the GUI editing tool (GUIDE) in the face. You got Matlab (any version at least after 2007a-ish)? Okay, draw 5 pop up menus, 5 radio buttons, 5 toggles, I dunno... throw a dozen uicontrols on a new empty figure with GUIDE. Okay, now select them all. Now tap the arrows on your keyboard a couple dozen times. It you were able to move those demon-spawned cinders of UI evil more than a couple dozen times without sending Matlab into a tailspin of Java heap space disaster, you're doing better than I am. And the med school student working with me. Across 6 computers with 3 OSes, some with as little as 4GB of memory, some with as much as 16GB. The Java heap space doesn't care how much memory you have. You might as well be working on a circa 1985 Tandy.

There are other things that drive me nuts about that venerable development platform, like sometimes I just want a null value. Matlab Roulette time! Will the null value be treated as an empty matrix, NaN, a string containing 'NaN', or will it just delete those entries in the data structure? Did you pass a row or column vector? Doesn't matter much, since you'll have to babysit the results - that's what I call it when you can't just call a function and know the format it returns. It results in an annoying trial-and-error or single stepping drudge at every other step. And don't get me started on graphing's voodoo properties. Alright, I got my axes set up with all the labels and fonts, and tick marks etc etc etc just as I want them... aaaand plot... joy! Matlab has decided to results every third property to some default value. Not all the properties, but enough to waste 15 minutes of wondering why it decided to change the 'DataAspectRatio' to 'CowsGoMoo'. Oh, and it halted before the figure handle was assigned (or you forgot to bow to your benevolent overlords {}, [], (), ., and ', leading them to eat your CloseRequestFcn), so your figure like some nerd-rage fueled zombie window that refuses to close.

(incidentally...

ohGodNotAgain = allchild(0);

for pleaseKillMe = 1:length(ohGodNotAgain)

delete(ohGodNotAgain(pleaseKillMe));

end;

clear all;

abandon(hope);

The last line wasn't real, but then again, guess what clear all does? Sometimes it clears all. Sometimes... I think it works on alternating Tuesdays when clear objs is busy.

Discussion

So, that's my life right now. Don't get me wrong... it's been great (aside from the family insanity), but I'm too busy to really post much. Besides, every news story seems to be covered so completely that I'd rather tag the RSS feeds and pass them on (lots on the 'Interface and HCI' feed) in order to reserve posting for stuff that I can add to the discussion on (time permitting). Check out the feeds for interesting, exciting, awesome and buoyant stories.

DNI: Dumb Name iPad

Ah yes, been a while, but I thought I would suckle on the sweet, sweet nectar of iDevice frenzy. “Wha?!?! That’s not BCI related!” you say. I know, but I’ve posted in the past about my search for the perfect ereader, my love of tablets, and general techno-fetishism. How could I not post?

Want the short version? Completely unimpressed.

Sure the, oh gawd, do I have to actually type this name…., grrr… Sure the iPad could never live up to the hype the preceded it, but really, the iPad barely lives up to the abilities of the Apple Newton. Really? Sure the iPad has fancy things like color and 3G, but but the Newton had handwriting recognition and a PCMCIA card slot. Otherwise, both rely on a specialty OSes unable to run full desktop apps, cost about the same, and have the same ridiculous bezel to screen ratio. Okay, enough with the kinda ridiculous comparison.

What’s the bright side of the iPad’s annoucement?

I’m actually excited about the iPad. Not the iPad itself, but the interesting apps it inspires. Remember how unspeakably crappy the smartphone market was before the iPhone? It was mind-numbing. If you approach the iPad from the ebook reader perspective, you can see where that market is going.

10 hours of battery life while watching movie. Yes, very nice. Whether this is still true after a month of burn in and OS patches, we’ll see. There are a few magic numbers for battery life: 3 hours – plane ride, movie plus other activities, usage during single ‘events’. 6 hours – leave the house for an outing and recharge when you get back, equal to all day for semi-infrequent daily use. 10 hours – effective all day use for always on, but sleep capable devices. 16 hours – all day use with regular-heavy usage. After that it’s a matter of days between each step. There are netbooks that have made the 10+ hour mark, but cheers to Apple for being there right from the get go.

Really, that’s about it for the pluses. Minuses?

If you approach the iPad from the netbook perspective, there are plenty of app launchers on Windows that do everything from simulate the OSX dock, the iPhone springboard, and about a million other crazy options. How much access Apple will give devs to the GUI is yet to be seen, but if the iPhone or OSX are any indication, you’ll be lucky if they allow you to change the clock’s font.

The worst, unApple-like thing about the iPad is the near total lack of inspiring features. Where are the revolutionary interaction techniques, the device-centric interface reimagining, and those little bits of the unexpected? iPod – the navigation/click wheel. iPhone – multitouch, accelerometer, proximity sensor. iPad – ? Did they run out of ideas? Just make it a big fucking iPhone. That’ll be good enough. Um, no.

For all the crap that Microsoft has taken for the early tablet PC implementations, the iPad is downright embarrassing in comparison. They just took Windows and slapped a pen in your hand. Hey, at least you got a pen…

Which brings me to that. A stylus. The iPad could have gained all the whiz-bang features of a… pad of paper. It could have been used for class note taking, composing messages, drawing/sketching, and so much more. Instead you get an awkward keyboard with no tactile feedback (not even an attempt to make a keyboard you could use while standing up?) and fingerpainting. Not sure if they figured out a way to make the touchscreen pressure sensitive, but if not, what a mess.

Other quibbles are mentioned in this excellent rundown on Gizmodo titled 8 things that suck about the iPad. Enjoy your dongles, iKids. I’ll be over doing something exotic, like running TWO apps at once, swapping out a battery, opening an actual file, or placing an icon on the bottom of the screen before there are 20 above it. Put that on your SD card and… oh, no expandable memory slot. Right.

Intel, do tell

I know I said no more meta posts, but just a quick explanation. I had a death in the family (second in a month), which happened literally the day after I posted last. So, things have been exceptionally crazy.

To tide you over, here is one of the more trumpeted pieces of BCI news.


Apparently Intel is now in the techno-voodoo-Kurzweilian prediction business, because they're saying we'll all be controlling our computers with brain signals by, and I quote, "2020". What's better is that they are basing this claim on fMRI findings. Is this reasonable, I mean, are we really that close to this amazing new world? In a word: OMGWTFNONONO. A) No one is going to wait a week for their BCI to magnetize. B) MRI requires that the whole head be subjected to a strong magnetic field, which means a gigantic, neck crushing apparatus. C) Power. Unless we are all driving out own buses filled with batteries, not even close. D) MRI. Magnets. Computers. Railroad spikes. Manhole covers. Nuff said. E) Temporal fidelity. Imagine playing a game with 400-500ms lag. That's also assuming there are massive improvements in processing and predictive algorithms, because right now it is between 3-10 SECONDS (deCharms, 2007). F) Consumer tech will push for better interaction, not more exotic. If I can control a mouse with my arm, why get a BCI that does worse? Things like multitouch at least provide something new beyond simple 2D control. G) Just, just... *facepalm*

Back on the attack

Ah, that's what I needed. A little reprieve from the guilt of being a bad blogger and not updating the site on a totally self-imposed schedule does wonders. So, as I slowly get back into the swing of things, including my RSS feeds, postings will become more frequent.

Right now I have two advisees, a bunch of MatLab code, and a #$*@-ton of neural data to attend to, so this is a quick announcement that DNI lives on.

Super Paper Friday will hopefully resume next week, since I need to migrate and sync all my paper lists, and catch up on the past 6 months or so. I'll also be sticking with Mendeley for citation management, but also post an EndNote file to my public DropBox.

A few random other personal things...

Great to meet folks at SfN! Ah, Chicago. And to the person that gave me swine flu, I wish nothing but the worst for you! j/k, though no idea who it was. I ended up staying with family an extra few days in Chicago because I was too sick to fly. Thankfully the bug hit on the last day of the conference. If you got sick, don't blame me! Our whole lab was a sea of virus shedding nerd phlegm, it was a pretty widespread thing.

Windows 7 is spiffy. Installed it on 4 PCs and they're all popping along pretty happily. 64-bit Business edition. No driver issues with any of the 11-ish devices I have here (list at bottom of post), x58 chipset (x2), Core2Duo laptop, and G45 chipset (x1). Matlab's happy, installed (but haven't messed with) Visual Studio 2010 Public Beta, PeerBlock being all PeerBlocky (replacement for PeerGuardian that has a signed driver, meaning no more booting in Test Mode). Performance is slightly better than Vista on computational stuff, but where 7 really blows away Vista is in I/O. In Vista, you'd boot and then your hard drive would be thrashing for 20 minutes after on some mysterious process of no consequence - even on my RAID 0 Velociraptors. In 7 you boot, and, like a normal computer, everything loads and settles down after 30 seconds (even on my laptop's 5400rpm HDD). Only two programs gave me trouble: Instant Eyedropper (gets values of colors anywhere on the screen), and Eraser 6 beta (secure file deletion program - haven't tried the stable v5 yet). Other than that, about 30-40 other programs launched and worked fine during the minimal testing I did.

So, posts will be forthcoming. Apologies for being all meta again.

(Devices: Logitech: G19 keyboard w/ color LCD, G9 mouse, Illuminated keyboard, G13 Gamepad, Quickcam 9000, Quickcam Pro for Notebooks. iPod Classic, iPhone, Wacom Bamboo tablet, Connexion3D SpaceNavigator, Gateway docking station.)

All Quiet on the Eastern Front?

Rather than let my readers think that DNI has been abandoned, I thought I would give a brief update and set an official hiatus return date. Well, either the hiatus will end or I might hand over control/go totally laissez-faire with the DNI posting.

I've had a number of extra-webbernet affairs stealing away nearly all my time. I had a family situation to attend to, projects for two (awesome) minions to set up and coordinate, a facility move, a close friend popping out a kid, a neighbor popping out a kid, and some new, very interesting data to look at from my first official BrainGate related tasks that I've designed from the bottom up (conceptually and implementation-ly). The publication engines are starting to churn and preliminary analysis is pointing in all the right directions, so I'm very happy with the current situation. No SfN poster this year, which is a good thing. I wouldn't have had time to do more than staple some hand drawn diagrams on a piece of paper and staple them up for display.

On a general DNI topic, I have the two EEG BCI toys en route to mess with. I'm interested in seeing how well they work. Hrm, what else...? Caught a bat in my place. That was exciting. Oh, wait, that wasn't DNI related.

Anyhow, I'll be back filling your heads with garbage again (both figuratively and literally) starting Dec 1. Until then, there will be some sporadic updates or tweets, but nothing major. I'll be trying to get my shit together on a number of fronts and figuring out how to 'hiccup-proof' it all in the least disruptive way possible. (Google Reader has given up on counting the number of unread stories. It just cries when I open it.)

Until then, take care and keep your thinkin' caps on. :D

Another school year begins

Ah, the wafting aromatic waves of beer and cardboard boxes could only mean one thing: the kids are back in town. Here are a few minor updates on my end of things (major for me, minor for readers, I suppose)...

Mendeley sadness
My schedule has become too packed and unpredictable to keep up with the Mendeley work, so I decided to leave my Community Liaison job (on good terms). I kept thinking, "As soon as I get over this next time crunch, I'll be ready to really give Mendeley the attention it deserves." But, those crunches just kept coming and I don't see them becoming any less crunchy in the near term. The folks there are great, the product is great, and I really wish I had the time to work on it more. I expect really big things out of that group, and will continue to sing their praises. Okay, maybe not sing. Limericks? Nah. Too many syllables in all the keywords ("There once was a bibliographic... shit, ran out of syllables already").

My Project/Thesis/Thing
I've begun running some of the experiments that I've taken lead on (I don't want to say they're 'my' projects because so much feedback has gone into the process that, like all good experiments, I don't think one person deserves all the credit). I would go into more detail, but you know how it is in research and especially FDA/clinical trial situations. Still, these are 'mah babies' and so far things are looking really good. Now to get to the data! Big thanks to Jessica (my 'med school minion') for putting up with my odd schedule and all the great work. Hrm, I could use another DNI contributor or two...

On the topic of putting together kick-ass experiments, I've been meaning to post that there is a whole field out there that many scientists are completely unaware of called "User Experience", or UX. UX is kinda an amalgamation of user interface, HCI, psychology, feedback, and design that looks at how all those fields converge into the subjective experience of the user. Fascinating stuff, though more on the 'web design' end of the spectrum, and I've been really loving the bits and pieces I've been coming across. This field is set to explode with the continually expanding emphasis being put on web apps, mobile apps, and even OSes in general. Which brings me to another nice tidbit of knowledge.

2 copies of Windows 7 for $30 (for students)

Yeah, right! No, really! Thinking of getting a new PC, but wanna wait for Windows 7? Don't want to reinstall your system halfway through the semester just play with all the fun new built in toys? (Shuddup Mac people. some of us prefer a different flavor of Kool Aid.) Well, you'll love this.

Join IEEE as a student for $30 (1-year membership), and get access to their MSDNAA software library for free. This includes the Windows 7 RTM version. RTM? That sounds like a beta. Nope, RTM stands for 'Release to Manufacturer'. Buy a PC on Oct 23, and this is same version of Windows 7 that will be shipping on it. Not beta, not RC. I've gone through this process, and it works as advertised. Buy the membership, wait about 7 days for the MSDNAA specific email to show up with your login and password (mine took about half that long, maybe because I used my university email address), and go get em, tiger.

Only the Business versions (32 and 64-bit) is up as of this posting (don't waste your time with the RC, and Ultimate isn't much better than Business, unless you need the language packs, which I think can be purchased separately). Supposedly, the 'in place' upgrading has undergone some major upgrades, and Vista users may not even need to do a clean install, though I always recommend it. Mine installed fine - took about 30 minutes and activated without issue.

Here are the linkies:
Source of the info: SlickDeals
IEEE description: here

Data Visualization
I plan to add more on this in the future, but an interesting (free) iPhone app to check out is Roambi, which basically allows you to upload 'data' to their site, and then spit is back in some really visually pleasing, interactive displays on the iPhone.
Try the app's built in demos for a better idea.

Fun tidbits

A brief jaunt into random websites while frantically trying to assemble my experiments, which happen to be unexpectedly soon, is always a dangerous proposition. Here are a few science-y/tech-y funbits...

- The Apollo 11 - rockstar awesome, yes? Well, check out this funky little guidance computer simulator. All systems are go... for fun! (info, and the site.)

- From the DonationCoder forums, bookTome helps you organize your book collection. A better option, though, might be Calibre (though more for the ebook crowd). More alternatives can be found in the forum comments on DC.

- Hodgman vs Obama - sweet nerdcore coolness!

While I was gone...

Here are a few stories worth noting from the last few weeks along with some random ramblings.

Now you see it, now you don't (remember)!
First, I'm watching a really interesting piece from 60 minutes on how flawed eyewitness testimony can be. What's most interesting is the way that psychologists can alter the report of an eyewitness in a predictable manner. To sum up one technique, present two faces that are similar to the perpetrator, present the previously chosen face and another that is very different, present the reaffirmed face and the perpetrator. These little psychological tricks provide important clues to the inner workings of memory and an important bridge between experimental and applied psychology. Whether they will be equally useful for neuroscience, we'll have to wait and see. Think of these types of stories as similar to the barrage of visual illusions you would see in an intro to neuroscience course (like these). Part 1 sets up the case, Part 2 is where it gets interesting (those pressed for time can skip to part 2).

Eat it ASIMO!
Toyota has been trumpeting the creation of a noninvasive BCI (EEG) for controlling a wheelchair. Basically, it sounds like a 3 state decoder (forward, left, right), with an emergency stop signal (the user puffs out their cheek). Usually this isn't too exciting (like that Honda media circus the previous month), but the 125ms lag is actually pretty good for EEG. Worth looking into more for those even slightly interested in EEG based systems.

Mendeley-he-hoo!
v0.9 (and now v0.9.1 which fixes a problem with PDF linking), is now available. PDF reader with annotation tools, more control over syncing collections, and a bunch of other features. Go get em, tiger!

Perfect storm

If it seems quiet here, it's because I have had something of a 'Perfect Storm" lately (all my various projects have gone into overdrive mode at the exact same time). Just for the hell of it, here's the rundown...

As mentioned in the last post, the BrainGate2 clinical trial is moving forward. That means oodles of behind the scenes things - everything from website redesign, logo design (not even decided on yet), and preparing for a location move to assembling tasks, getting approvals and shoring up sub projects take time. I've kept out of many of the logistical preparations (plenty of experience there from my days at Neural Signals), but I tend to get called in for consultation on tech issues. That and I like to make sure that the 'modern' bases' are covered (registering the Twitter/Flickr/etc accounts, researching collaboration tools, etc.).

I will be helping with two younger students' projects, so meetings galore, and some preliminary data collection in the current participant should be ready by the end of next week (hopefully at the end of this week). This has been my highest priority, and actually the most fun and frustrating time in grad school so far.

Mendeley has released version 0.9, and it is awesome. I have a number of things on the docket for them which need to be finished this week (webcast and focus group meeting).

My friends' film project is shooting at an undisclosed time and location, but as you might be able to guess that's moving along int he near term.

Digital Trends has moved to a really schwank location in downtown Portland, OR. I have had zero time for them, which I really feel bad about, so that guilt is working into the mix.

Throw in a little non-school/non-work drama/fiascoes/whatever, and I am running on adrenaline during every waking hour. At least my sleep schedule is actually normalized by the exhaustion experienced in the 'early' evening (3am for me).

Anyhow, the one thing I have been keeping up to date on, mostly, is the Papers RSS Feed. No time for SPF (the summary post at least - those papers are always in the RSS feed), Toyota's silly 3 state decoder, etc. I'm looking into some ways of making the whole blogging thing a little easier to integrate into my regular schedule, but first I have to do the same for Mendeley. Hang in there. I'm still alive, and so is DNI. Our activity is just inversely related.

BrainGate2 clinical trial is go

That's right! Everyone's favorite Neural Interface System, filled to the brim with Brain-Computer Interfaceyness, BrainGate, is continuing clinical trials, sans Cyberkinetics. Massachusetts General Hospital will serve as the home base, with close ties to Brown and Harvard universities and the Providence VA Hospital. Leigh Hochberg takes the helm as PI and lead investigator along with John Donoghue. The project is being called BrainGate2 in part to denote advancement in the systems, techniques and understanding used in designing and implementing an NIS. People looking for more information, including participant enrollment, can check out the below links and Braingate2.org.

Clinical trials page on BrainGate2.org website
ClinicalTrials.gov entry

Brown University release
GenEngNews article
Boston Globe article
Providence Journal article
PhysOrg article

Reddit catch
Twitter catches

Meta again - site changes

I know posting to the site about the site is getting old, but I'm swamped with work and want to make sure people know I haven't abandoned it. So...

Updated look: I changed some the design a tad - now wider and less crammed looking (that's the default for Blogger, so let me know if it messes anything up). Now it's displaying at 1000 pixels wide, which should alleviate the cut off photo/video problems. I might make it a point to do a weekly visual refresh and add a few elements here and there. The way it is now is now how I 'want' it to be, but it was a quick fix that made it better than before and got the ball rolling (hopefully).

Twitter: Recent tweets added to the right column. I'll be adding some more social engineerin... er social services type things in the future. Honestly, i thought Twitter was going to be annoying, and so far it has taken the place of little things I might have mentioned on the blog, but without the feeling that I need to write a page about said thing.

RSS feeds: These are going to remain 'organic'. By that I mean I will be constantly trying to improve them. I like the categories I have setup now, so what is there will stay there, but I will possibly be adding more or removing others, so check back for updates (I won't be announcing them in posts from now on). Feeds that have proven themselves worthy will be listed in the sidebar as 'stable' and others will be listed as 'trial'. For example, I'm really liking some of the data visualization stuff I've come across, but it doesn't fit in any one category, so I might add a feed for that.

Super Paper Friday: Several things.

• SPF, as mentioned in the previous post, is now on Mendeley, with the citations in line here.
• I will be switching to an every other week schedule for posting SPF.
• Papers will remain on Mendeley for ~3 months in order to keep the account quota usage reasonable. After 3 months, I will be removing the pdf links, but keeping the citations there. If you join the shared group, just drag the citations you want over to your library and the pdfs should follow, so it isn't the case that you would lose access to the pdfs.
  
• Mendeley currently has a 7 person limit on shared groups. To get around this I will add groups with the same papers as the community grows. Chances are good that by the time this becomes a hassle, the limit will be raised (already asked about this and it looks like it will be soon).

As always, any feedback is appreciated!

SPF - now with PDFs!

It's special because it is being posted on Saturday! Just kidding.

Let's see how this works...

Super Paper Friday is live... on Mendeley! That's right! I know, I know, it took me long enough, but not only are the citations up, but so are the PDFs. This is much, much easier for me, and gets me into some better habits in regards to keeping my papers organized. This SPF is one week delayed, so the papers are not from the current week. I was trying to make sure the PubMed info is updated - the PubMed info for papers on the day they are released is sometimes non-existent or lacking info.

So, how do you get access?

1. First, sign up for Mendeley. No, this isn't all a ploy to up user registration. Believe me. I see how many hits DNI gets, and it would be a drop in the bucket. There are 1,000,000 articles on Mendeley, and from the blog:
   

   90% of these one million articles have been uploaded since January 2009, and our database is currently doubling in size every 6 weeks. For comparison, venerable PubMed - the largest database of biomedical literature - contains 18,813,527 records as of today. Assuming we managed to keep up our growth, we could surpass the size of the PubMed database within the next 6 months!

   
   I will post a detailed rundown of my workflow when compiling literature lists soon, possibly over the weekend, so you can see it from my perspective.
2. Find my Mendeley profile. Hint: It's here. Click "Add contact". Type something in there like, "Gimme mah SPF, ya bastid!"
   
   
   
   
3. I will get a notification. I will cry because the above message was so harsh and I thought we had a good thing going. I will wipe away the tears, and try to win you back by adding you to the shared group list.
   
4. The group will appear in your shared group list. If you have the desktop client, it will fetch the PDFs automatically.
   
5. You will receive a notification that I added you, at which point you will burst into The Happy Dance. Yays!

Note that you don't have to download the client program, but I would totally recommend it. Totally, yes.

As of right now, there's no way to define custom citation styles, which is what I was using in EndNote to post the direct links, so the below list lacks links. (Yes, I am leaving you to copy and paste the title into Google or PubMed if you don't go the Mendeley route. You poor overworked soul.) Once that feature is added, I will resume using the previous format with nice, convenient links. If this really irks you, I'm sure you are smart enough to know that the right click menu over selected text will let you search for that text. Not a big deal.


Aggarwal V, Singhal G, He J, Schieber MH, Thakor NV (2008) Towards closed-loop decoding of dexterous hand movements using a virtual integration environment. Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference 2008:1703-6

Aghagolzadeh M, Shetliffe M, Oweiss KG (2008) Impact of compressed sensing of motor cortical activity on spike train decoding in Brain Machine Interfaces. Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference 2008:5302-5

Ajiboye AB, Weir RF (2009) Muscle synergies as a predictive framework for the EMG patterns of new hand postures. Journal of neural engineering 6:36004

Albert NB, Robertson EM, Miall RC (2009) The Resting Human Brain and Motor Learning. Current biology : CB:1-5

Bishop W, Yu BM, Santhanam G, Afshar A, Ryu SI, Shenoy KV, Vogelstein RJ, Beaty J, Harshbarger S (2008) The use of a virtual integration environment for the real-time implementation of neural decode algorithms. Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference 2008:628-33

Bradberry TJ, Contreras-Vidal JL, Rong F (2008) Decoding hand and cursor kinematics from magnetoencephalographic signals during tool use. Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference 2008:5306-9

Bradi AC, Adam JJ, Fischer MH, Pratt J (2009) Modulating Fitts's Law: the effect of disappearing allocentric information. Experimental brain research. Experimentelle Hirnforschung. Expérimentation cérébrale 194:571-6

Brinkmann BH, Bower MR, Stengel KA, Worrell GA, Stead M (2009) Large-scale electrophysiology: acquisition, compression, encryption, and storage of big data. Journal of neuroscience methods 180:185-92

Cardin JA, Carlén M, Meletis K, Knoblich U, Zhang F, Deisseroth K, Tsai L, Moore CI (2009) Driving fast-spiking cells induces gamma rhythm and controls sensory responses. Nature:1-6

Cattaneo L, Rizzolatti G (2009) The mirror neuron system. Archives of neurology 66:557-60

Danziger Z, Fishbach A, Mussa-Ivaldi FA (2008) Adapting human-machine interfaces to user performance. Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference 2008:4486-90

Desmurget M, Reilly KT, Richard N, Szathmari A, Mottolese C, Sirigu A (2009) Movement intention after parietal cortex stimulation in humans. Science (New York, N.Y.) 324:811-3

Dye MW, Green CS, Bavelier D (2009) The development of attention skills in action video game players. Neuropsychologia 47:1780-9

Eldawlatly S, Jin R, Oweiss KG (2008) Identifying Functional Connectivity in Large-Scale Neural Ensemble Recordings: A Multiscale Data Mining Approach. Neural computation 21:450-77

Fukayama O, Taniguchi N, Suzuki T, Mabuchi K (2008) RatCar system for estimating locomotion states using neural signals with parameter monitoring: Vehicle-formed brain-machine interfaces for rat. Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference 2008:5322-5

Gallivan JP, Cavina-Pratesi C, Culham JC (2009) Is that within reach? fMRI reveals that the human superior parieto-occipital cortex encodes objects reachable by the hand. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 29:4381-91

Gilio F, Iacovelli E, Frasca V, Gabriele M, Giacomelli E, De Lena C, Cipriani AM, Inghilleri M (2009) Electrical and magnetic repetitive transcranial stimulation of the primary motor cortex in healthy subjects. Neuroscience letters 455:1-3

Gunduz A, Sanchez JC, Principe JC (2008) Electrocorticographic interictal spike removal via denoising source separation for improved neuroprosthesis control. Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference 2008:5224-7

Han X, Qian X, Bernstein JG, Zhou H, Franzesi GT, Stern P, Bronson RT, Graybiel AM, Desimone R, Boyden ES (2009) Millisecond-timescale optical control of neural dynamics in the nonhuman primate brain. Neuron 62:191-8

Jung P, Ziemann U (2009) Homeostatic and nonhomeostatic modulation of learning in human motor cortex. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 29:5597-604

Kiani R, Shadlen MN (2009) Representation of confidence associated with a decision by neurons in the parietal cortex. Science (New York, N.Y.) 324:759-64

Kositsky M, Chiappalone M, Alford ST, Mussa-Ivaldi FA (2009) Brain-machine interactions for assessing the dynamics of neural systems. Frontiers in neurorobotics 3:1

Liddle EB, Scerif G, Hollis CP, Batty MJ, Groom MJ, Liotti M, Liddle PF (2009) Looking before you leap: A theory of motivated control of action. Cognition

Mugge W, Schuurmans J, Schouten AC, van Der Helm FC (2009) Sensory weighting of force and position feedback in human motor control tasks. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 29:5476-82

Ramanathan D, Tuszynski MH, Conner JM (2009) The basal forebrain cholinergic system is required specifically for behaviorally mediated cortical map plasticity. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 29:5992-6000

Salinas E (2009) Rank-order-selective neurons form a temporal basis set for the generation of motor sequences. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 29:4369-80

Sincich LC, Horton JC, Sharpee TO (2009) Preserving information in neural transmission. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 29:6207-16

Slutzky MW, Jordan LR, Miller LE (2008) Optimal spatial resolution of epidural and subdural electrode arrays for brain-machine interface applications. Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference 2008:3771-4

Smith WS, Fetz EE (2009) Synaptic Interactions Between Forelimb-related Motor Cortex Neurons in Behaving Primates. Journal of neurophysiology

Takahashi YK, Roesch MR, Stalnaker TA, Haney RZ, Calu DJ, Taylor AR, Burke KA, Schoenbaum G (2009) The orbitofrontal cortex and ventral tegmental area are necessary for learning from unexpected outcomes. Neuron 62:269-80

Thakor NV (2008) Neuroengineering: building interfaces from neurons to brain. Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference 2008:1602-3

Tomi N, Gouko M, Ito K (2008) Impedance control complements incomplete internal models under complex external dynamics. Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference 2008:5354-7

Tunik E, Houk JC, Grafton ST (2009) Basal Ganglia Contribution To The Initiation Of Corrective Submovements. NeuroImage

Tziridis K, Dicke PW, Thier P (2009) The role of the monkey dorsal pontine nuclei in goal-directed eye and hand movements. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 29:6154-66

Tziridis K, Dicke PW, Thier P (2009) The role of the monkey dorsal pontine nuclei in goal-directed eye and hand movements. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 29:6154-66

Wang Y, Principe JC (2008) Tracking the non-stationary neuron tuning by dual Kalman filter for brain machine interfaces decoding. Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference 2008:1720-3

Wolynski B, Schott BH, Kanowski M, Hoffmann MB (2009) Visuo-motor integration in humans: cortical patterns of response lateralisation and functional connectivity. Neuropsychologia 47:1313-22

Zhao M, Rattanatamrong P, DiGiovanna J, Mahmoudi B, Figueiredo RJ, Sanchez JC, Príncipe JC, Fortes JA (2008) BMI cyberworkstation: enabling dynamic data-driven brain-machine interface research through cyberinfrastructure. Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference 2008:646-9