Hi all,

I have a general question on getting eeg data from circuit to a computer. So from a high level my plan for an eeg system is:
Electrodes => Amplifier => Analog-to-Digital-Converter => Digital Multiplexer => ????
Digital Mux is because I’ll have multiple channels, although I’ll test with it only one channel first.

I’m not sure how to go from digital mux to seeing the data on laptop. I’ve looked at a few projects, and a diy project (link below) uses a 3.5mm male-to-male cable to connect the circuit to a computer. However, the connection looks kinda dangerous and I don’t like this way of going from circuit to computer.
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-EEG-and-ECG-Circuit/

Another OpenEEG project uses a 9-pin Serial Output to get data from circuit to computer. This way looks much better, but I only have a laptop which does not have a 9-pin serial output anywhere.

Is there a way to go from a digital mux to seeing data on a laptop with a usb connection? Or do I need to use a development board like an arduino or a microcontroller/microprocessor to transfer the data to a computer. Also, once the data is transferred to a computer, is there any easy way of viewing the data? I planned on using some open source software (like the code from the diy or somewhere else) and then editing it to fit my needs. But the diy code is for eeg data from a sound card. Any free open-source software that’s for eeg data via usb? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

 

"I suggest connecting the other end of these alligator clips to jumper wires, inserting these into their appropriate place in the circuit. Connect the other end of the cable into the microphone port of your computer, and you're good to go!"

"First thing to do is to download Processing, available at http://processing.org. It doesn't require any installation; just unzip the download, open the folder, and run it. Download the sketch (what programs are called in processing), and open it up. The program should be good to go as is, and while there should be enough documentation to understand what's going on in the sketch, I want to make a few notes and give a general outline of what it does here.
I encourage you to tinker with the program - change things, make your own, etc. Don't be afraid to break it, since a working version can always be found here. If you're new to programming, the guys that made processing have some really great basic tutorials here."

You could cycle through the channels with a gap between them to detect and keep them separate. And one dummy channel that is flat line at a certain voltage to keep them in sync and start over.

 

I'm not actually building the circuit from the diy, I was just using that as an example to search for other ways to get data from digital mux to a computer. I think I'll just use an Arduino.

Also, how exactly would I cycle through the channels? Could you explain this a bit more. Thanks!