Abstract
 
The Mindfulness mirror was developed from a simple infinity mirror
that changes its hues in accordance with relaxation levels read from a
Neurosky Mindwave EEG. The new mirror uses an interactive Genetic
Algorithm with fitness ratings provided from the EEG, consisting of
the sum of attention and meditation (mindfulness) readings. The
software runs on the Arduino platform. There are a number of aspects
of the system that could be improved, but having reached the limits of
the available memory, this would require porting to a Teensy platform
with more memory and faster libraries for managing the 202 LEDs. The
system might also be more effective if the mutation rate was slowly
reduced over the generations, but these are issues to be explored in
future work. Whilst more LEDs would allow geometry to be explored as a
variable, this is problematic as it would require a much larger power
supply than the 10 Amps we currently use.

The system was developed for the 13th BCS Machine Intelligence
Competition; the current presentation was developed specifically for
this and lasts about 15 minutes. To demonstrate effectively, we use
only 4 parents, employ a high mutation rate (5%) and limit the display
time of each parent to 30 seconds. Co-dominance is used, although a
splicing function is also available. We do normally see some
convergence over this time period. The project was developed for fun
and exploration of ideas but it does raise interesting issues with
regard to sensors providing fitness functions and the lack of a
clearly defined endpoint. A library will be available for the Arduino
platform over the next few months, which should be useful as a
teaching tool. We would also like to explore possible applications of
the technology for art installations and therapeutic systems.
 
The talk itself is silent!