For researchers

iborg uses the consumer grade EEG headsets that people already own to measure, at the population level, how people’s brainwaves react to different stimuli. iborg measures how much the EEGs line up, and when.

First, what is EEG?

EEG (electroencephalography) is a way to measure the tiny electrical signals that your brain makes, picked up by sensors in the EEG headset on your head. Nothing goes in and nothing is sent through you; the sensors only listen. You can buy a consumer grade headset online.

EEG is very good at timing (it catches changes about as fast as your brain makes them) and rough about location (it cannot pinpoint deep spots in the brain). Low cost headsets have fewer sensors than research grade ones, so each one sees less, but many people using them adds up.

What you can do

Try it out yourself! Participate and invite people to try it out. Create your own Researcher account and create a study by uploading a video and inviting participants, and then get back anonymous, combined results. No lab, no scheduling, and nothing special to install on your end.

Positive control

We check our analysis using the “oddball” signal. When we present a rare, odd stimulus (visual or auditory) mixed in with ordinary ones, the brain gives a small, reliable signal about a third of a second later. We ensure that our analyses can detect that blip first before we proceed with more complicated analyses.

We have not verified this on population-level recordings yet. When we do, the result, and exactly how we got it, will appear here.

Privacy, in plain terms

Everyone chooses what they share. Results are always grouped and never tied to one person. We drop very small groups so no one can be singled out, and anyone can pull their own data out later. Raw brain recordings are personal, so sharing those requires separate, plainly-worded permission. Because anything made public cannot be taken back, that choice is always its own deliberate, separate step.

Headsets are not all the same

Lower quality EEG headsets may have very few sensors or produce lower quality readings than in a research environment. We always include as much information as possible about the device rather than the brain.

Check what a headset can do

Want to know what a particular headset can measure? Run the quick check. It takes about a minute and tells you which kinds of experiments that headset can handle.