This amazing Raspberry Pi project lets you control a bulb's brightness using your brain

We’ve seen a ton of different Raspberry Pi projects here on XDA, but none of them have used a brain scanner to control a piece of hardware. Well, that has just changed, as we caught wind of this amazing cyberdeck brain scanner. It can read brain waves and translate them into specific actions, and as we’re about to see, it has helped its own inventor keep his mind peaceful and serene during his meditation sessions.

The Neuro Photonic R5 Flow Cyberdeck is a Raspberry Pi project that can peek inside your head

As Tom’s Hardware spotted, this cool project was the idea of The Civitas Universe on YouTube. They have dubbed it the Neuro Photonic R5 Flow Cyberdeck. It uses a Muse 2 EEG brain wave headband to monitor the mind’s activity.

The Civitas Universe did a lot of work to get this project off the ground. The main computer is a Raspberry Pi 5 that handles all of the inputs and outputs. He also invested in a power bank to keep the Pi charged without the need for a mains power source.

Of course, what good is a Raspberry Pi project if it doesn’t look the part? That’s why The Civitas Universe printed out a nice cyberdeck shell to really sell it for what it is; a cool brainwave-reading machine. He also made a colorful keypar that could swap between different brain region scans at the touch of the button.

Alright, so how did this help with his meditation? The Civitas Universe tested the project by writing it up to the brightness controls for a light bulb. The concept was simple: the calmer his mind was, the dimmer the bulb got. The more brainwaves that fired, the brighter the bulb became. As part of his meditation, he donned the headset and tried to dim the bulb as low as possible. Sure enough, he managed to get it down to 10% brightness in the video, and he comments on how the project really helped him sharpen his mind and keep it from straying.

This is a super cool project, but it does involve a lot of time, patience, and handiwork to get made. If you’d like something simpler, check out these Raspberry Pi projects which you can finish over a weekend.