Last Updated on February 24, 2024 by pg@petergamma.org
EEG devices which are based on the ADS1299 EEG chip are those sold from www.openbci.com, HackEEG, OpenBCI from China and PiEEG.
- OpenBCI from www.openbci.com have high but stable prices, slow bluetooth transmission and no WIFI.
but
- And OpenBCI from China
- HackEEG
- and PiEEG
do not have stable prices, availability, and quality
What can happen with these EEG products is explained here in the example of the Dreem 2 headband. This sleep EEG headband was developed by a medical doctor over several years. It was then offered to Rob ter Horst to review it:
Rob ter Horst asked in his video:
500 USD, is this device forth that much?
The device basically consists of 4 EEG modules and the Python sleep software which is free. Recently PiEEG with 4 channels was on the market for 250 USD. So in theory we could build a Dreem2 headband for 250 USD or less.
Then a paper was published about the Dreem 2 accuracy which compared the device with a professional polysomnography device:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352721823002942
There where authors of the paper who worked for Dreem 2, and it was partly funded by Dreem2, we suppose that Dreem 2 offered the Dreem2 headbands. Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org therefore flaggs this paper as a paid promotional paper. After the paper has been released, the Dreem 2 has been pulled from the marked for private users. The paper increased the value of the Dreem2. And it was only offered to professional users such as Richard R. Davidson, PhD. for 1 400 USD.
But Richard R. Davidson, PhD. did not buy the Dreem2 for 1 400 USD for his Center of Healthy Minds in Madison. On the contrary, Dreem 2 went bankrupt and was taken over by a new company, which again wants to make money out of it.
The same can happen to HackEEG, PiEEG, and OpenBCI made in China. And the same can happen to EEG developers who use HackEEG, OpenBCI from China and PiEEG as a basis for their development. As the example of the Dreem 2 has shown, if your development or a paper increases the value of the EEG device, the risk is there that it is pulled from the market, and only offered to professional users at a higher price. And which EEG device developers want to base their developement onto such a device? Not Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org.
This is smilar to what Raspberry Pi did to their users. To get rid of the smart developers such as Jeff Geerling:
And then looking for the hobbists to sell it to those. Products which are based on the ADS1299 EEG chip from Texas Instruments managed now to get rid of Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org, who wrote 822 posts about EEG devices:
https://petergamma.org/category/eeg-devices/
After what has happened with products which are based on the ADS1299, Peter Gamma is not interested in these devices anymore. But if you are a hobbist looking for an EEG device and you are interested in those, go for it.