| Abstract
Mind Garden is a personnel growth
game which utilizes interactive brainwave activity for learning and for
therapy. The concept and design of the game have evolved through the research
of the author of this
paper, Paras Kaul. This research was influenced by personal interaction in the
water with dolphins. Mind Garden has been designed to call attention to
the development of brainwave interactive learning tools.
Playing the game provides a three dimensional journey through an audio, visual,
and neurolinguistic environment. The experience within the garden is controlled
by the player's interactive brainwave activity.
Using IBVA, Interactive Brainwave Visual Analyzer Software, a state of the art
brainwave software developed by IBVA technologies, brainwave frequencies
are set to control the motion of forms, sounds, and words in a digital game
world.
The first public exhibit of Mind Garden was at the Los Angeles Convention Center,
August 3-8, 1997, for the Electric Garden Exhibition at SIGGRAPH '97 (Special
Interest Group for
Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques).
Game Design: Entrainment
The vision for Paras West Productions
has been to design interactive multimedia tools to assist in learning and
therapy. Used in the context of Mind Garden, entrainment is a process whereby
a player's brainwave activity is stimulated by multimedia events. In the
Mind Garden, frequencies trigger effects, so each player learns to control
the predominant frequencies of their brainwave activity in order to have
the most interesting multimedia experience in the game environment. The challenge
of the game is to entrain one's own brainwaves to the alpha and theta frequencies
associated with deep mental states of activity. The design
of this game combines the technologies
of EEG, digital brainwave analysis, computer system design, cgi effects, and
digital sound.
The Mind Garden game is designed to be played in a quiet place with the appropriate
hardware, configured to run the IBVA software, which is required for the interactive
transmission of brainwave activity
via computer networked system. A player, seated in a chair in front of a computer
monitor, wears a headband configured with electrodes designed for state-of-the-art
EEG testing. The headband will be used to transmit brainwave signals from the
player to the computer. These signals are input to the computer as digital data.
From here various freque ncies of brainwave signals will be output. Frequencies
of this output are then used to trigger multimedia events.
For the Mind Garden Exhibit, a waiting area is defined where players gain assistance
from previous game players who will discuss methods for training new players
to, in a sense, program their brainwaves.
What this means is that techniques will be introduced to help players understand
the process of brainwave switching. If a player has not had access to the Mind
Garden Exhibit, the game also includes detailed instructions for relaxation exercises
to practice before entering the garden.
Brainwave switching involves changing the predominant frequency of the brainwave
signal back and forth from one frequency range to another. Frequencies range
from beta to alpha, then theta, and on to
delta. These techniques are, more specifically, methods for increasing relaxation
in the physical body. Brainwave switching produces changes in one's focus and
relaxation. The most skilled of players will be
able to control the degree of relaxation which allows them to switch back and
forth from one brainwave state to another.
Interactive Experience
The experience within the Mind Garden environment becomes a personal challenge,
whereby the user is asked to focus into a variety of brainwave states, determined
by frequencies of their own brainwave signals. In the garden, the complexity
of forms, sounds, and words will be determined by these frequencies as they are
occurring in Real Time. The journey one experiences is determined by one's own
imagination as reflected in their brainwave activity. If a player is predominantly
signaling theta wave activity, he or she will experience a journey of greater
complexity and focus, whereas a player, primarily experiencing beta brainwave
activity, may find the journey to be simple and confused. The challenge of the
journey is to experience the garden as controlled by alpha and theta brainwaves,
thus perceiving a deeper and more co mplex view of the simulated reality. The
goal is to achieve the ultimate experience while in the Mind Garden by tuning
one's frequencies to the deepest level.
Chronological Overview of Mind Garden Research
The idea for the Mind Garden game was conceived by Paras Kaul at Paras West
Productions in 1997. Since 1986, I have been involved in researching brainwave
activity, as it relates to intelligence, in conjunction
with research regarding dolphin communication. Early studies were influe nced
by my interaction with Dr. John Lilly in regard to dolphins, brainwave activity,
and flotation tanks.
Since 1990, SIGGRAPH has allowed me to produce exhibits which have led to production
of the Mind Garden. Additionally, SIGGRAPH'S Educator 's Program provided an
educational grant to me in
1990, based on a proposal to establish a course regarding the design of motion
and sound in the fractal domain. At this time I was involved with beta-testing
the NeXT computer system, and the primary area
of interest was high frequency sound in the fractal domain. During this time,
I was also invited to present a technical paper in Australia, which paper represented
early research before using interactive
brainwave softwares. The primary interest at th is time was the effect of high
frequencies on the human body. The paper associated with the research is "Motion
Moves Sound" and is viewable through Paras
West Productions on the World Wide Web, at the Virtual
Research.
Later, while participating in an exhibit at a Cyber Arts Conference in Pasadena,
California, I was introduced to IBVA, a two channel brainwave software developed
for use on Apple computers (IBVA - Interactive Brainwave Visual Analyzer soft
ware). Using this software, I became involved with before and after studies
of brainwave tests, attempting to discover what types of human experience would
result in the deepest states of human consciousness (theta-delta activity). In
the following two years, I attended various conferences and symposiums personally
demonstrating the use of an interactive brainwave
software and attempting to demonstrate how humans can control their brainwave
activity, or as Dr. Lilly would describe this process, "Programming and
Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer".
In 1993 while pursuing this research, I was introduced to Dave Cole and the AquaThought
Foundation, which organization has focused their research on the effect of
dolphin sonic emissions on the human
brain. Since that time, many individuals have organized into a larger group of
approximately 200 individuals who are working to support Dolphin Assisted
Therapy for healing purposes. These people now meet in Cancun to share research
at yearly International Symposiums regarding Dolphin Assisted Therapy.
In 1994, while working with Masahiro Kahata, software programmer for IBVA, and
Gohsuke Takama , President of Meta Sound Engineering in Tokyo, an exhibit was
designed by Masahiro for the Be-In of
MacWorld in San Francisco. At this exhibit, we worked with participants teaching
them brainwave switching in order to turn on and off various colors of light bulbs
relative to the predominant frequency of
their brainwave activity.
I n 1994, I also became a volunteer at Loma Linda University Rehabilitation Center
working as part of the Human Performance Institute with Dr. Dave Warner, Neuroscientist,
M.D. He was exploring the use
of Virtual Reality technologies for rehabilitation pur poses. During this time,
in collaboration with Bill Martens, P.H.D. in Spatial Psychology, we developed
a user interface to the IBVA software for SGI's
Indigo computer. Later, while collaborating with Dr. Warner on a SIGGRAPH exhibit
for The EDGE Exhibition at the Orlando Convention Center, the Human/Dolphin
Virtual World Concept was formulated. For the exhibit, I designed a
dolphin animation, viewed in large screen projection, which could be controlled
by human brainwave activity. Using this technique, the animation would be viewed
differently by each participant relative to the frequency sequencing of their
brainwave activity.
In 1995, I began to explore communications via the World Wide Web and became
interested in the development of technological communities related through computer
networks. I began to envision a
uture where humans would colonize to develop a living community in space where
humans and dolphins could interact. The premise behind this notion is that dolphins
can provide knowledge to humans
regarding high frequency communication (ultra-sonic) of information. Additionally,
their potential for ultrasonic communication can be used for therapeutic purposes.
Moved by the possibilties for scientific
innovation, I developed a Website to collect information relating to the technological
needs of a human/dolphin living environment in space. This Website was presented
at SIGGRAPH '95 for the
INTERACTIVE COMMUNITIES EXHIBITION. More information on the project can be accessed
from the Virtual Research.
Motion Moves Molecules
Following the 1995 Space Colonies Exhibit, I found myself in Cancun, Mexico at
the First International Dolphin Assisted Therapy Conference produced jointly
between Dave Cole, AquaThought
Foundation, and Donna Brewer, Dolphin Discovery Center. Registration to this
conference included the opportunity to swim with dolphins from the Discovery
Center on the Isla de Mujeres. After this
symposium, I began a new phase of re search based on my experience in the water
with dolphins. In 1996 I wrote the paper "Motion Moves Molecules",
which compared human reaction to sonic emissions
from dolphins to the synaptic transmission of energy experienced in the practice
of Chinese Chi Kung. My research became a study of how to describe human physiological
responses to the experience of
being sonared by the dolphins. The paper suggested that sonic emissions are capable
of altering the nature of molecules by stimulating synaptic tr ansmission in
the brain.
Learning Through Entrainment
After reflecting upon the brainwave test results described previously, I became
convinced that sonic emissions from dolphins are capable of altering the internal
nature of a neur on. High frequency
information transmitted from dolphins produces rapid synaptic transmission of
presynaptic electrical neurotransmitters. The flow of transmission through ion
gated channels is received by postsynaptic
receptors which receive electrical neurotransmitters that bind to the channel
walls and stimulate the postsynaptic cells in the brain.
Speculation is that these postsynaptic responses produce motion that reinforces
stimuli for learning. This receptor process involves recepti on of high frequency
communication of information. As a result of
the higher frequencies and coherence of the signal, a significant amount of information
is transmitted in quick time. The force of impact behind the motion is the significant
contributing factor. When a human
is "dolphined", that is, when a dolphin directs its sonar to a human
being, the response to the information transmitted is so vast and high in frequency
that a natural entrainment process occurs between human
and dolphin. The human basically entrains to the higher dolphin frequencies, and
in so doing, becomes aware of a greater database of information. Non-verbal learning
occurs. The effect on the human brain
is to quiet the mind and slow frequencies of human brainwave activity to deeper
levels of attention which allows the individual to focus on the information being
transmitted from the dolphin via neural
networking in the brain.
Audio/visual feedback in the Mind Garden encourages players to tune their brainwave
activit y to higher frequencies. Thus, the game is intended to stimulate learning
as the player, encouraged by the digital
effects, attempts to switch frequencies of brainwave activity. This personal growth
game is a process of learning by entrainment. Product ion of Mind Garden is intended
to develop interactive multimedia
tools to assist in learning through entrainment rather than by memorization.
Therapy Via Entrainment
Therepeutic entrainment is an extension of learning by entrainment , whereby an
individual's state of mind is positively influenced by the kind of stimulus it
is entrained to. In regard to the use of multimedia
effects in a game like environment, if alpha and theta brainwave frequencies are
set to activate visuals of he aling colors, sounds that have soothing effects,
and words that have positive effects on the psyche,
then the effect of the experience can be therapeutic in nature. The overall state
of mind should improve as a result of positive feedback. In t he Mind Garden,
the incentive for playing is to see, hear, and feel better. There is no killing
or destruction involved. The quality of the multimedia design of the game is critical
to the resulting mental state.
Therapy becomes a process of tuning in to brainwave frequencies that activate
pleasureable experiences within a game environment. In a sense players learn
to control their brainwaves to entrain to
frequencies which trigger positive feedback. The outcome of this process produces
an increased f eeling of well being in the player. A participant comes out of
the game experience feeling refreshed.
Conclusion
Mind Garden, an experience in gaming, is designed as a prototype for the
kind of games that can be developed using interac tive brainwave technologies.
The SIGGRAPH Exhibit was designed to introduce
this new method of gaming which can be produced in the future. The concept involved
in the production of the game is to create a personal growth environment which
facilitates le arning and therapy via entrainment. It is this author's opinion
that a game of this type can be used at educational institutes or medical facilities.
With appropriate funding, Mind Garden can be further designed to allow players
to work together for in teraction with each other via brainwaves over the World
Wide Web. Using Web technologies for brainwave interaction with objects in a
3D VRML environment will allow players to interact
with each other via brainwaves. Subsequent versions of the Mind Garden game will
be designed to distribute over the World Wide Web. The game as described in the
preceding manuscript was presented as part of SIGGRAPH '97 in the ELECTRIC GARDEN
EXHIBITION in August of 1997.
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