Patent Description:
<CIT>, <CIT>, <CIT> and <CIT> disclose electroencephalography apparatus, and <CIT> and <CIT> disclose adjustable backlight. During computer gaming, it may be interesting for an audience to gain insight into the mental state of a player. As such, there may be a need for devices and methods which give an indication of a player's mental state in an easy to observe way.

According to various embodiments, a keyboard is provided. The keyboard includes the features of claim <NUM>.

According to various embodiments, a method for controlling a keyboard is provided. The method includes the features of claim <NUM>.

The dimensions of the various features or elements may be arbitrarily expanded or reduced for clarity. In the following description, various embodiments of the invention are described with reference to the following drawings, in which:.

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings that show, by way of illustration, specific details and embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. Other embodiments may be utilized and structural, and logical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the claims. The various embodiments are not necessarily mutually exclusive, as some embodiments can be combined with one or more other embodiments to form new embodiments.

In this context, the keyboard as described in this description may include a memory which is for example used in the processing carried out in the keyboard. A memory used in the embodiments may be a volatile memory, for example a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) or a non-volatile memory, for example a PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory), an EPROM (Erasable PROM), EEPROM (Electrically Erasable PROM), or a flash memory, e.g., a floating gate memory, a charge trapping memory, an MRAM (Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory) or a PCRAM (Phase Change Random Access Memory).

In an embodiment, a "circuit" may be understood as any kind of a logic implementing entity, which may be special purpose circuitry or a processor executing software stored in a memory, firmware, or any combination thereof. Thus, in an embodiment, a "circuit" may be a hard-wired logic circuit or a programmable logic circuit such as a programmable processor, e.g. a microprocessor (e.g. a Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) processor or a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) processor). A "circuit" may also be a processor executing software, e.g. any kind of computer program, e.g. a computer program using a virtual machine code such as e.g. Java. Any other kind of implementation of the respective functions which will be described in more detail below may also be understood as a "circuit" in accordance with an alternative embodiment.

In the specification the term "comprising" shall be understood to have a broad meaning similar to the term "including" and will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or step or group of integers or steps but not the exclusion of any other integer or step or group of integers or steps. This definition also applies to variations on the term "comprising" such as "comprise" and "comprises".

The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that the referenced prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in Australia (or any other country).

In order that the invention may be readily understood and put into practical effect, particular embodiments will now be described by way of examples and not limitations, and with reference to the figures.

Various embodiments are provided for devices, and various embodiments are provided for methods. It will be understood that basic properties of the devices also hold for the methods and vice versa. Therefore, for sake of brevity, duplicate description of such properties may be omitted.

It will be understood that any property described herein for a specific device may also hold for any device described herein. It will be understood that any property described herein for a specific method may also hold for any method described herein. Furthermore, it will be understood that for any device or method described herein, not necessarily all the components or steps described must be enclosed in the device or method, but only some (but not all) components or steps may be enclosed.

The term "coupled" (or "connected") herein may be understood as electrically coupled or as mechanically coupled, for example attached or fixed, or just in contact without any fixation, and it will be understood that both direct coupling or indirect coupling (in other words: coupling without direct contact) may be provided.

For example, during computer gaming, it may be interesting for an audience to gain insight into the mental state of a player. According to various embodiments, devices and methods may be provided which give an indication of a player's mental state in an easy to observe way.

According to various embodiments, a mental state indication via a light source (for example via LEDs (light emitting diodes) or any similar light emitting devices) may be provided.

<FIG> shows a keyboard <NUM> according to various embodiments. The keyboard <NUM> may include a receiver <NUM> configured to receive user data based on an electroencephalography measurement. The keyboard <NUM> may further include at least one light source <NUM>. The keyboard <NUM> may further include a controller <NUM> configured to control the at least one light source based on the user data. The receiver <NUM>, the at least one light source <NUM>, and the controller <NUM> may be coupled with each other, like indicated by lines <NUM>, for example electrically coupled, for example using a line or a cable, and/ or mechanically coupled.

In other words, a keyboard <NUM> may indicate data indicating an electroencephalography measurement received from external to the keyboard <NUM>.

According to various embodiments, the user data may include or may be or may be included in raw electroencephalography measurement data.

<FIG> shows a keyboard <NUM> according to various embodiments. The keyboard <NUM> may, similar to the keyboard <NUM> shown in <FIG>, include a receiver <NUM> configured to receive user data based on an electroencephalography measurement. The keyboard <NUM> may, similar to the keyboard <NUM> shown in <FIG>, further include at least one light source <NUM>. The keyboard <NUM> may, similar to the keyboard <NUM> shown in <FIG>, further include a controller <NUM> configured to control the at least one light source based on the user data. The keyboard <NUM> may further include a mental state determination circuit <NUM>, like will be described in more detail below. The keyboard <NUM> may further include a control data determination circuit <NUM>, like will be described in more detail below. The receiver <NUM>, the at least one light source <NUM>, the controller <NUM>, the mental state determination circuit <NUM>, and the control data determination circuit <NUM> may be coupled with each other, like indicated by lines <NUM>, for example electrically coupled, for example using a line or a cable, and/ or mechanically coupled.

According to various embodiments, the mental state determination circuit <NUM> may be configured to determine at least one of a mental state or a motor state based on the raw electroencephalography measurement data.

According to various embodiments, the at least one of mental state or motor state may include or may be meditative, calm, attentive, focused, winking, blinking, smiling, frowning, clenching, laughing, smiling, excited, frustrated, and/ or bored.

According to various embodiments, the control data determination circuit <NUM> may be configured to determine control data for controlling the at least one light source based on the at least one of mental state or motor state.

According to various embodiments, the user data may include or may be or may be included in data indicating at least one of a mental state or a motor state.

According to various embodiments, the user data may include or may be or may be included in control data for controlling the at least one light source.

According to various embodiments, the keyboard <NUM> may be a peripheral device.

According to various embodiments, the receiver <NUM> may include or may be at least one of a wired interface, a wireless interface, a Bluetooth interface, a ZigBee interface, an infrared interface, a wireless local area network interface, a Universal Serial Bus interface, or a Thunderbolt interface.

According to various embodiments, the at least one light source <NUM> may include or may be at least one colored light source. According to various embodiments, the controller <NUM> may be configured to control a color of the at least one light source <NUM> based on the user data. According to various embodiments, a plurality of colored light sources may be provided, for example in a Chroma device. According to various embodiments, both light color and light intensity may be controlled.

<FIG> shows a flow diagram <NUM> illustrating a method for controlling a keyboard according to various embodiments. In <NUM>, user data based on an electroencephalography measurement may be received. In <NUM>, at least one light source of the keyboard may be controlled based on the user data.

According to various embodiments, the method may further include determining at least one of a mental state or a motor state based on the raw electroencephalography measurement data.

According to various embodiments, the at least one of mental state or motor state may include or may be at least one of meditative, calm, attentive, focused, winking, blinking, smiling, frowning, clenching, laughing, smiling, excited, frustrated, or bored.

According to various embodiments, the method may further include determining control data for controlling the at least one light source based on the at least one of mental state or motor state.

According to various embodiments, the keyboard may be a peripheral device.

According to various embodiments, the user data may be received using at least one of a wired interface, a wireless interface, a Bluetooth interface, a ZigBee interface, an infrared interface, a wireless local area network interface, a Universal Serial Bus interface, or a Thunderbolt interface.

According to various embodiments, the at least one light source may include or may be at least one colored light source. According to various embodiments, the method may further include controlling a color of the at least one light source based on the user data.

According to various embodiments, EEG (electroencephalography) data may be collected via EEG sensors mounted on an EEG headset or a similar device and may be analyzed to understand the mental state of the person. The raw EEG data may be processed to determine if the subject is for example meditative (for example calm), attentive (for example focused), winking, blinking, smiling, frowning, clenching, laughing, smiling, excited, frustrated, and/ or bored.

According to various embodiments, EEG (electroencephalography) data collected from non-invasive sensors of a BCI (brain-computer interface) headset worn by a user may be used. A remote device with a light source or a plurality of light sources (for example with LEDs) that is or are wirelessly connected to the BCI headset may reflect a specific color to indicate a state of mind of the user (e.g., excited, focused, calm, bored, etc.). The remote device may be an input device (such as our Chroma mouse and keyboard, wearable device) that may change colors according to the mood of the user wearing the BCI headset.

According to various embodiments, game developers may incorporate into games a mental state of a gamer either as an integral part of the game or as a purely aesthetic effect that can be viewed by a much larger audience (for example when games are live-streamed).

According to various embodiments, EEG data may drive an input device (for example a Chroma input device) to provide smart lighting effects that may sense the mood of the user.

According to various embodiments, an individual or team members' behavior may be analyzed through wearable devices that indicate mental states. The mental states of the individual and entire teams may be observed on their wearable devices as they progress through their task or games. This may be used for studying intra group and inter group dynamics.

According to various embodiments, a color (or a plurality of colors) of the light source (or plurality of light sources; for example LEDs) mounted on the EEG headset, wearable or peripheral device may be modified according to the mental state of the subject. For example, if the subject is calm, a soothing blue may be shown on the light sources. If the person is angry or excited, the colors can be changed to a fiery red.

According to various embodiments, the EEG data may be analyzed using the processing power in the headset itself to arrive at the mental state to drive the LEDs. In this case, the algorithms processing the EEG data may be running on the headset itself.

According to various embodiments, the raw EEG data may be sensed by the headset and transmitted to another computing device like a computer or a mobile phone. The raw EEG data may be processed on this external computing device to determine the mental state of the subject. The external device may then send the result of the processing back to the headset (or any other device). The headset may then display the colors on the LEDs accordingly. How and what to display (for example colors, patterns, etc.) may be determined either by the device worn (for example headset, wristband, watch, etc.) or by the external computing device.

According to various embodiments, raw EEG data may be processed to determine mental state in a headset and/ or in an external computing device (for example a PC (personal computer) or a mobile phone).

According to various embodiments, display color and/ or pattern may be determined based on mental state in a headset and/ or in an external computing device (for example a PC (personal computer) or a mobile phone).

According to various embodiments, the color (or color pattern) may be displayed in a headset and/ or in another device (for example a wristband, a watch, a mouse, or a keyboard).

According to various embodiments, the lighting effect may be achieved via LEDs. According to various embodiments, the same effect may be obtained by any LED equivalent device, for example a keyboard backlight.

According to various embodiments, EEG data may be used to drive smart lighting effects (for example Chroma Effect on a Razer device).

According to various embodiments, people looking at the subject may immediately understand the subject's mental state by looking directly at the person. It may be easier to co-relate facial expression, body language and mental state. Without this, the person looking at the subject would have to keep switching his view between the computer display and the subject.

According to various embodiments, with the LED lighting, a large audience may see the results (for example the processed EEG, for example the derived mental state).

According to various embodiments, it may be possible to quickly observe the mental states of a group of people. Thus, multiple teams of subjects wearing the EEG headsets may be given a task (or multiple tasks). The mental states of the individual and entire teams may be quickly observed as they progress through their task or games. This may be used for studying Intra group and inter group dynamics.

According to various embodiments, a light source (for example LED display) may be provided on a PC (personal computer), on an input device (for example a keyboard or a mouse), and/ or on a wearable.

According to various embodiments, EEG computations may be running on a PC and/ or mobile phone and/ or headset.

Various embodiments may be used during gaming or for a study of group dynamics.

According to various embodiments, raw EEG data, computed mental states and LED patterns may be transmitted over wired and wireless channels.

According to various embodiments, a mental state of a subject may be displayed on a headset, on a wearable and/ or on a peripheral. In other words, an outcome of EEG processing may be displayed on the human body (for example via a wearable device) or on a peripheral device (for example mouse, keyboard, or game controller).

According to various embodiments, light sources (for example LEDs) may be used to indicate a mental state of a subject. According to various embodiments, the light sources may be embedded on a headset. According to various embodiments, the light sources may be mounted on a wearable device (e.g. wrist band or wrist watch). According to various embodiments, the light sources may be provided on a peripheral device like a mouse, keyboard, or game controller.

Various embodiments may be used in EEG headsets, audio headsets, VR (virtual reality) headsets, wearable devices (for example wrist bands or watches), peripherals (for example mice, keyboards, game controllers, or broadcasters), or computing systems (for example with lighting effect on build in keyboards, etc.).

Claim 1:
A keyboard comprising: a receiver (<NUM>) configured to receive user data; a backlight comprising at least one light source (<NUM>); and a controller (<NUM>) configured to control the at least one light source (<NUM>) of the backlight of the keyboard based on the user data,
characterized in that the user data comprises raw electroencephalography measurement data of a user playing a game; in that the keyboard further comprises a mental state determination circuit (<NUM>) configured to determine at least one of a mental state or a motor state based on the raw electroencephalography measurement data; and in that the keyboard comprises a control data determination circuit (<NUM>) configured to determine control data for controlling the at least one light source (<NUM>) based on the at least one of mental state or motor state.