BCI Can Do Better
Well-Known Member
Welcome to the build thread for my Red Sea Reefer. I wanted to share my story and the tank’s progress here, and soon Instagram. I quickly noticed how big of an info dump this first post will be so I’m going to put my introduction stuff inside the spoiler tag. I hope you all enjoy it and I’m looking forward to all the advice you can give. One thing I don’t want to bury is my thanks and appreciation for all the companies that have already offered support for this project through discounts and donations. Thank you!
It’s been cycling for a couple weeks now.
This is what is currently running:
Stock 500 GPH return pump, heater, Seneye Reef (discounted), Tunze Comline DOC Skimmer 9004 DC
In my possession but not set up:
Icecap Gyre 1k, 2k, and dual wifi controller, MP10, Kessil A360X fuge and Tuna Blue lights (discounted), AquaUltraviolet Classic 15w sterilizer (donated), 750 GPH return, Osmolator ATO
Planned/in progress:
Aquascape changes. Triton method (donation), setting up the fuge, GHL Doser (donation), Avast Plank feeder (donation), OctoAquatics lid and other things (discounted), ORA clownfish (donation), WWC corals (donation), Reef Cleaners CUC (donation). I need to figure out what I’m going to do for the ATO reservoir.
Wishlist:
GHL Profilux, Ion Director, KH Director. More controller/automation stuff. Random flow generator. DC/quieter returns. More fish/coral.
Here’s the stuff I’m already looking for advice on:
Flow. I was going to use the Gyre 2k that I have at the top and since the tank came with an MP10 I figured I could use it somewhere lower on the back (like green dot in the pic) to try to keep the detritus off the sand bed. Does this seem like a good plan? Should I put the 2k on the left or right? On the left is close to the return nozzle, would that, with/out a RFG nozzle disrupt the desired gyre flow too much?
Before I can order my lid from OctoAquatics I need to finalize where I will put the Plank auto feeder. Any suggestions, taking potential flow into consideration?
I want to use the UV at a lower flow rate for parasite control. I’ll need somebody to put together some kind of manifold and use a separate pump for that correct?
I think that is all I have for right now. More posts and pics to come as I get the rest of everything set up.
Hello R2R,
I'm in a very unique situation and first I'd like to introduce myself and say thank you in advance for taking the time to read this.
I’m Nathan and I'm 34 years old. After a car accident in 2004, I was left paralyzed from the chest down. For the last six years, I've been part of a brain computer interface study through the University of Pittsburgh. A major influence on my decision to join the study was my love of Japan and its pop culture, especially robots and cyborgs. Now, I’m a real cyborg and few people have controlled as many robots with their mind as I have. As part of this research I have undergone multiple surgeries and now have 4 micro-electrode arrays implanted in my brain, 2 in the motor cortex and 2 in the sensory cortex, that I can use to control a robotic arm, and receive sensation back from it. I am the first human in the world to ever have electrodes implanted in the sensory cortex.
For the past six years I've been driven 1 hour and 15 minutes each way into Pittsburgh to the research lab for four hours of testing three days a week. Because of all the unique perspectives and experiences I've gained over the years I've been able to accomplish many incredible things from controlling a robotic arm to fist bump president Obama, to achieving my lifelong dream of traveling to Japan. While in Japan I was able to give presentations about my experiences at Osaka University, Keio University, and an international neuroscience conference that was having their annual meeting in Toyama. I also got to visit the huge 8 story aquarium in Osaka that had 2 whale sharks in it. It was amazing. I've also been able to do presentations and interviews for many other conferences, companies, podcasts, and publications. Here is a link to my Youtube playlist that collects videos about my time in the study so far including meeting President Obama, playing Final Fantasy XIV with my implants, and a presentation I did recently titled “From Lab to Real-World: Restoring Movement Control and the Feeling of Artificial Limbs with Brain Implants” that I think went really well .
Here is a podcast I really enjoyed doing.
Here is my Linkedin profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-copeland-a75606163/
Besides controlling a robotic arm I have also used the BCI to control a multitude of cursor based tasks on a computer. Out of that multitude my 2 favorites by far have, not surprisingly, been the 2 that I got to do for fun, using a drawing program and playing video games. The first games I got to play were Pac Man Championship Edition DX+ and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 by using a program that converted my neural signals into commands for a keyboard emulator. Unfortunately, but completely understandably, for me the vast majority of my time spent in the lab was focused on collecting data for their research and not on playing video games, so I very rarely got to do it. One of the requests I had from the very beginning was to try to play Final Fantasy XIV and after 5 years of asking I was finally able to. This is a game that I enjoyed playing on my PC at home off and on over the years since it's release. I do have enough arm function to play some PC games using keyboard and touchpad, and console games using a custom arcade stick (unfortunately I need a new one of those built). You can see videos of me playing those 3 games in the playlist I linked above.
One of the downsides to this technology being in the research stage is the amount of specialized equipment and cumbersome cables that are required to use it. This is a picture of the equipment setup in the lab: (attachment 1)
Around 2 years ago they started testing a less powerful, but portable system using a medical tablet and new cables. While it's not able to control a robotic arm or deliver stimulation to my sensory cortex, it is able to run the basic cursor tasks as well as a keyboard and mouse emulator that works over the network to control another PC. (attachment 2)
Last March, like most things in the rest of the world, the University of Pittsburgh shut down research due to the pandemic. That meant I couldn't go in for testing anymore. Luckily for me they arranged for me to be able to take the portable system home with me for my personal use. This meant that I was able to spend a lot of time trying to play a few different games and drawing a cat (attached). During my first few months with the tablet I played a lot of Slay the Spire and Raiden V and took video of them as well. Unfortunately I am not able to upload them to Youtube right now due to the fact that the researchers are planning on publishing a paper about me being able to use the tablet at home independently and don't want me to upload videos of that until the paper is published. I think having to wait is kind of silly even though I understand their concerns.
I've been wanting to try many different games, on PC and console, but due to circumstances in my personal life I haven't used the system much in the last couple months. I've recently gotten really excited at the prospect of continuing to play games via BCI and making videos of it that I can upload to Youtube once the research paper is published. But just like a lot of aspects of my life lately I seem to be cursed with endless setbacks. I've been dreaming about a setup with a new 4K/8K TV (absolute dream would be LG 77" ZX Series OLED), amazing top of the line PC to play games and record videos, as well as run software to allow the BCI to control consoles, dual 27” 4K monitors, next gen consoles, and games. Beside me in this dream setup I would absolutely love a large reef tank. So I started to try to reach out to companies to see if they would be willing to help me achieve something like this. While a lot so far don't even reply to me, some are thankfully very generous.
I am currently in the middle of upgrading from a Biocube 16 to a used Red Sea Reefer 170. I've been up every night daydreaming about all the options that could make this tank the best it could be. While researching other peoples tanks I came to the conclusion that I want to run the Triton method. Triton has even agreed to help me do that through donations. I really want everything in this tank to look/grow the best it can. I may be dreaming about controlling a PS5/XSX/Uber PC with my brain and watching it on a giant TV and staring at a gorgeous reef tank, but a system like I’ve been dreaming up is well beyond my budget with my limited fixed income so every little bit helps. One reason I don't already have a larger reef tank is the amount of work I have to ask my caregivers to do to maintain it. I also have a 120g African cichlid tank. If possible I want to put as little burden on one of my caregivers as possible. While looking for other things that could help relieve some of the burden of reef tank maintenance on my attendants I came across GHL and their automatic testing systems. Testing calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium is very important to keeping a reef tank and not having to rely on caregivers to try and test it for me would be awesome. I contacted them and they agreed they would be willing to help me out with the project by sending me one of their dosers. Besides GHL, Triton has agreed to help me with Core 7 and ICP tests, Caribsea donated sand and Life Rock, ORA will be donating 2 clownfish of my choice, WWC is going to donate corals and swag, Reef Cleaners is donating a CUC, Kessil has offered a huge discount (I got an A360X Fuge and Tuna blue lights), Tunze has offered a discount, Avast is sending a Plank auto feeder. AquaUltraviolet sent me a sterilizer, I’m really hoping more will decide to help too.
I'm in a very unique situation and first I'd like to introduce myself and say thank you in advance for taking the time to read this.
I’m Nathan and I'm 34 years old. After a car accident in 2004, I was left paralyzed from the chest down. For the last six years, I've been part of a brain computer interface study through the University of Pittsburgh. A major influence on my decision to join the study was my love of Japan and its pop culture, especially robots and cyborgs. Now, I’m a real cyborg and few people have controlled as many robots with their mind as I have. As part of this research I have undergone multiple surgeries and now have 4 micro-electrode arrays implanted in my brain, 2 in the motor cortex and 2 in the sensory cortex, that I can use to control a robotic arm, and receive sensation back from it. I am the first human in the world to ever have electrodes implanted in the sensory cortex.
For the past six years I've been driven 1 hour and 15 minutes each way into Pittsburgh to the research lab for four hours of testing three days a week. Because of all the unique perspectives and experiences I've gained over the years I've been able to accomplish many incredible things from controlling a robotic arm to fist bump president Obama, to achieving my lifelong dream of traveling to Japan. While in Japan I was able to give presentations about my experiences at Osaka University, Keio University, and an international neuroscience conference that was having their annual meeting in Toyama. I also got to visit the huge 8 story aquarium in Osaka that had 2 whale sharks in it. It was amazing. I've also been able to do presentations and interviews for many other conferences, companies, podcasts, and publications. Here is a link to my Youtube playlist that collects videos about my time in the study so far including meeting President Obama, playing Final Fantasy XIV with my implants, and a presentation I did recently titled “From Lab to Real-World: Restoring Movement Control and the Feeling of Artificial Limbs with Brain Implants” that I think went really well .
Here is a podcast I really enjoyed doing.
Here is my Linkedin profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-copeland-a75606163/
Besides controlling a robotic arm I have also used the BCI to control a multitude of cursor based tasks on a computer. Out of that multitude my 2 favorites by far have, not surprisingly, been the 2 that I got to do for fun, using a drawing program and playing video games. The first games I got to play were Pac Man Championship Edition DX+ and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 by using a program that converted my neural signals into commands for a keyboard emulator. Unfortunately, but completely understandably, for me the vast majority of my time spent in the lab was focused on collecting data for their research and not on playing video games, so I very rarely got to do it. One of the requests I had from the very beginning was to try to play Final Fantasy XIV and after 5 years of asking I was finally able to. This is a game that I enjoyed playing on my PC at home off and on over the years since it's release. I do have enough arm function to play some PC games using keyboard and touchpad, and console games using a custom arcade stick (unfortunately I need a new one of those built). You can see videos of me playing those 3 games in the playlist I linked above.
One of the downsides to this technology being in the research stage is the amount of specialized equipment and cumbersome cables that are required to use it. This is a picture of the equipment setup in the lab: (attachment 1)
Around 2 years ago they started testing a less powerful, but portable system using a medical tablet and new cables. While it's not able to control a robotic arm or deliver stimulation to my sensory cortex, it is able to run the basic cursor tasks as well as a keyboard and mouse emulator that works over the network to control another PC. (attachment 2)
Last March, like most things in the rest of the world, the University of Pittsburgh shut down research due to the pandemic. That meant I couldn't go in for testing anymore. Luckily for me they arranged for me to be able to take the portable system home with me for my personal use. This meant that I was able to spend a lot of time trying to play a few different games and drawing a cat (attached). During my first few months with the tablet I played a lot of Slay the Spire and Raiden V and took video of them as well. Unfortunately I am not able to upload them to Youtube right now due to the fact that the researchers are planning on publishing a paper about me being able to use the tablet at home independently and don't want me to upload videos of that until the paper is published. I think having to wait is kind of silly even though I understand their concerns.
I've been wanting to try many different games, on PC and console, but due to circumstances in my personal life I haven't used the system much in the last couple months. I've recently gotten really excited at the prospect of continuing to play games via BCI and making videos of it that I can upload to Youtube once the research paper is published. But just like a lot of aspects of my life lately I seem to be cursed with endless setbacks. I've been dreaming about a setup with a new 4K/8K TV (absolute dream would be LG 77" ZX Series OLED), amazing top of the line PC to play games and record videos, as well as run software to allow the BCI to control consoles, dual 27” 4K monitors, next gen consoles, and games. Beside me in this dream setup I would absolutely love a large reef tank. So I started to try to reach out to companies to see if they would be willing to help me achieve something like this. While a lot so far don't even reply to me, some are thankfully very generous.
I am currently in the middle of upgrading from a Biocube 16 to a used Red Sea Reefer 170. I've been up every night daydreaming about all the options that could make this tank the best it could be. While researching other peoples tanks I came to the conclusion that I want to run the Triton method. Triton has even agreed to help me do that through donations. I really want everything in this tank to look/grow the best it can. I may be dreaming about controlling a PS5/XSX/Uber PC with my brain and watching it on a giant TV and staring at a gorgeous reef tank, but a system like I’ve been dreaming up is well beyond my budget with my limited fixed income so every little bit helps. One reason I don't already have a larger reef tank is the amount of work I have to ask my caregivers to do to maintain it. I also have a 120g African cichlid tank. If possible I want to put as little burden on one of my caregivers as possible. While looking for other things that could help relieve some of the burden of reef tank maintenance on my attendants I came across GHL and their automatic testing systems. Testing calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium is very important to keeping a reef tank and not having to rely on caregivers to try and test it for me would be awesome. I contacted them and they agreed they would be willing to help me out with the project by sending me one of their dosers. Besides GHL, Triton has agreed to help me with Core 7 and ICP tests, Caribsea donated sand and Life Rock, ORA will be donating 2 clownfish of my choice, WWC is going to donate corals and swag, Reef Cleaners is donating a CUC, Kessil has offered a huge discount (I got an A360X Fuge and Tuna blue lights), Tunze has offered a discount, Avast is sending a Plank auto feeder. AquaUltraviolet sent me a sterilizer, I’m really hoping more will decide to help too.
It’s been cycling for a couple weeks now.
This is what is currently running:
Stock 500 GPH return pump, heater, Seneye Reef (discounted), Tunze Comline DOC Skimmer 9004 DC
In my possession but not set up:
Icecap Gyre 1k, 2k, and dual wifi controller, MP10, Kessil A360X fuge and Tuna Blue lights (discounted), AquaUltraviolet Classic 15w sterilizer (donated), 750 GPH return, Osmolator ATO
Planned/in progress:
Aquascape changes. Triton method (donation), setting up the fuge, GHL Doser (donation), Avast Plank feeder (donation), OctoAquatics lid and other things (discounted), ORA clownfish (donation), WWC corals (donation), Reef Cleaners CUC (donation). I need to figure out what I’m going to do for the ATO reservoir.
Wishlist:
GHL Profilux, Ion Director, KH Director. More controller/automation stuff. Random flow generator. DC/quieter returns. More fish/coral.
Here’s the stuff I’m already looking for advice on:
Flow. I was going to use the Gyre 2k that I have at the top and since the tank came with an MP10 I figured I could use it somewhere lower on the back (like green dot in the pic) to try to keep the detritus off the sand bed. Does this seem like a good plan? Should I put the 2k on the left or right? On the left is close to the return nozzle, would that, with/out a RFG nozzle disrupt the desired gyre flow too much?
Before I can order my lid from OctoAquatics I need to finalize where I will put the Plank auto feeder. Any suggestions, taking potential flow into consideration?
I want to use the UV at a lower flow rate for parasite control. I’ll need somebody to put together some kind of manifold and use a separate pump for that correct?
I think that is all I have for right now. More posts and pics to come as I get the rest of everything set up.
)
