Indra project

Nick Merrill i290-shda fall 2014

indra project

Build a generic platform for storing and analyzing physiological sensor data from multiple users simultaneously.

Indra's net   (indranet)

Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung [..] infinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each "eye" of the net [..] If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net"

— Avataṃsaka Sūtra 

Building multi-user applications with physiological SENSOR data

1. How do we effectively collect streaming data from multiple people in real time?
2. How do we correlate & compare these streams across users such that we can make inferences about their collective or social action?
3. How do we preserve privacy in such a system?

Why brains?

1. Provocative, highlights need for privacy-preserving design.
2. High volume and rate of data, & timing is everything.
3. Unclear how to make sense of neurological data when n=1.

Project goals

1. Create a first-of-its kind data repository for future research.
2. Evaluate engineering tradeoffs (centralized versus decentralized, bidirectional streaming versus traditional post requests, etc).
3. Stimulate development across multiple sensors, devices & applications, within the school of inf & beyond.

DATASET

Long neural recordings (2+ hours) of numerous, co-present individuals (10+) over several weeks in a naturalistic environment.

Why this dataset? (examples)

1. Can EEG scans be used to reliably identify individuals (cf. fingerprints)?
2. Can we find meaningful patterns at the group-level?
3. Can we predict how resting-state brainscans change over time?
4. &c......

Participating !

1. Run the client!
2. Pick the same username each time.
3. Contribute!