Edward L. Platt

For Maker Faire Detroit this year, I collaborated with Matt Oehrlein to build MindFlame, a mind-controlled flame effect game.

MindFlame uses commercial EEG headsets from NeuroSky to read the brain waves of two contestants. The signal is sent to an arduino, which can determine (more or less) how hard the contestants are focusing. When a contestant focuses hard enough, the arduino activates a solenoid, releasing a burst of propane past a glowfly ignitor, causing a giant burst of flame. The goal was to be the first person to get to four bursts of flame.

This project was tons of fun, and collaborating with Matt was great because we had twice as much time and resources to throw at the project, and I think the end result was much more impressive than we could have done individually. Plus, controlling fire with your mind is just awesome. Josh “Bacon” McAninch (from the Gon KiRin project) helped us with the flame effects, and Maddy "Brodi3" Winans helped us design and decorate the apparatus.

(Photo by Doyle S. Huge)