Synchronise with others‘ brainwaves

PsiNet: Toward Understanding the Design of Brain-to-Brain Interfaces for Augmenting Inter-Brain Synchrony

Nathan Semertzidis, Michaela Jayne Vranic-Peters, Xiao Zoe Fang, Rakesh Patibanda, Aryan Saini, Don Samitha Elvitigala, Fabio Zambetta, and Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller. 2024. PsiNet: Toward Understanding the Design of Brain-to-Brain Interfaces for Augmenting Inter-Brain Synchrony. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 434, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3641983

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Abstract

Underlying humanity’s social abilities is the brain’s capacity to interpersonally synchronize. Experimental, lab-based neuropsychological studies have demonstrated that inter-brain synchrony can be technologically mediated. However, knowledge in deploying these technologies in-the-wild and studying their user experience, an area HCI excels in, is lacking. With advances in mobile brain sensing and stimulation, we identify an opportunity for HCI to investigate the in-the-wild augmentation of inter-brain synchrony. We designed “PsiNet,” the first wearable brain-to-brain system aimed at augmenting inter-brain synchrony in-the-wild. Participant interviews illustrated three themes that describe the user experience of modulated inter-brain synchrony: hyper-awareness; relational interaction; and the dissolution of self. We contribute these three themes to assist HCI theorists’ discussions of inter-brain synchrony experiences. We also present three practical design tactics for HCI practitioners designing inter-brain synchrony, and hope that our work guides a HCI future of brain-to-brain experiences which fosters human connection.

PsiNet is the first wearable brain-to-brain interface, allowing us to study the experience of inter-brain synchrony in the wild.
Two asynchronous brains (top) versus two synchronous brains (bottom). Note that neural oscillations can differ between people in terms of phase (the length of the wave) and amplitude (the height of the wave).
The components of PsiNet: 1 – Ultracortex, 2 – OpenBCI Cyton Board, 3 – EEG Electrodes (blue bolts), 4 – tES Electrodes (orange squares), 5 – tES Device, 6 – Raspberry Pi.
The left shows a closeup of PsiNet fitted to a user’s head. Note the orange sponges for tES stimulation. The right illustrates PsiNet’s electrode configuration mapped onto the international 10 – 20 EEG electrode positions. Positions in blue indicate the positions of EEG electrodes, and orange outlines indicate a tES sponge electrode also fitted in that position. Green indicates the positions of the ground and reference EEG electrodes.