A prototype of the EEG-controlled cat ears rests on a mannequin. (Credit: Jazz Dimauro)
Taking costume cat ears up a notch, artist and self-described practical technomancer Jazz Dimauro designed wearable cat ears that use a MindWave headset to move and express emotion based on the wearer’s attentiveness or mental relaxation. The headset, a portable EEG biosensor, picks up data on its wearer’s state of mind, which it sends via wire or Bluetooth to an Arduino that controls the ears.
The design takes inspiration from a video concept for nekomimi brainwave-controlled ears, moving the ears on a single axis of rotation to minimize potential points of failure—each motor you add is one such potential point. Dimauro’s model mounts servos to the band of the MindWave headset, connected in a pan and tilt orientation. The servos and the ears themselves were modeled in Solidworks and printed with a MakerBot Cupcake—useful for rapid prototyping, though its rough printing capabilities impose design constraints. The final design for the ears is a 3D-printed shell which is then covered with fabric.
To engineer the motion, Dimauro decided to focus on animating the ears based on attention, isolating two variables detected by the MindWave headset: “attention” and “meditation.” Attention measures focus, the variable increases as the wearer concentrates, while meditation measures relaxation, increasing as the mind calms. Each variable’s 0-100 value is then used by the Arduino to animate movement based on the input; with both data points working together—it is possible to have both high attention and a high meditation value. A demo video of the animation pattern is available, showcasing motion as the attention variable sweeps from zero to 100 and then back down to zero after a pause. The intent, as Dimauro describes it in their blog, is for the ears to droop “like a sad anime cat” when the wearer’s attention has lapsed and to stand upright when they are alert, even including a randomized wiggle animation to express interest at very high attention levels.
Dimauro’s blog post describes the full process of creating “Project Catgirl,” which they started in 2011 and have only just made public. The project produced several iterations of the cat ears, tinkering with the ear shape and power source, among other elements until the headband could be worn comfortably. Design files are also now publicly available on Thingiverse and GitHub.
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