Digital eeg noise synthesizer

Abstract

A method and apparatus for generating an audio accompaniment for digital EEG systems (electroencephalographs) is disclosed. In the past, EEG systems included pen-on-paper EEG recorders to trace a representation of sensed brain wave activity on a strip of paper. This produced varying amounts of auditory noise that corresponded to the amount of brain wave activity which was used by medical technicians monitoring a patient. Digital EEG systems create traces on non-auditory (i.e., CRT) displays. As a result, the auditory feedback provided by the movement of pens on paper and the associated medical benefits have been lost. The invention remedies this problem by providing a method and apparatus that analyzes EEG signals and mimics the sounds that would have been created by the prior art pen-on-paper EEG recorders if the signals had been applied in analog form to such recorders. The invention includes several different synthesizers that replicate the sounds of pens moving across recorder paper, pens hitting on one another, and the motor drive train of a pen-on-paper EEG recorder. The system constantly analyzes the incoming EEG signals and updates control signals that control the synthesizers in a way that ensures that the sounds produced closely approximate the sounds of an equivalent pen-on-paper EEG system.