BrainPatch.AI: How a British neurotech startup built a working prototype fast, using Arduino Nano 33 IoT

The field of neurotechnology has been advancing rapidly in recent years, opening up to safe and effective non-invasive interfaces that can deliver tiny milliamp currents to the right stimulation location on the head, neck or body. One example of the new players in this field is BrainPatch.AI, a Cambridge-based neurotech startup, which has developed an […]

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The field of neurotechnology has been advancing rapidly in recent years, opening up to safe and effective non-invasive interfaces that can deliver tiny milliamp currents to the right stimulation location on the head, neck or body. One example of the new players in this field is BrainPatch.AI, a Cambridge-based neurotech startup, which has developed an advanced brain stimulation headset that aims to give wearers a meditative and stress-free state of mind. 

BrainPatch co-founder and CEO, Dr Nickolai Vysokov, explains: “Our innovative headphones are designed to gain indirect access to the vagus and the vestibular nerves via electrodes placed just behind the ears. The vagus nerve regulates the ‘rest and digest’ response of the nervous system, and stimulating it is known to lead to reduction of stress, improvement of heart rate variability, better communication between the mind and the body, and an improved overall state of wellbeing in general.”

Prototyping at mind-bending speed

Ordinarily, the time and effort required to produce a range of working prototypes would take larger companies years to accomplish, let alone a startup, which is why BrainPatch.AI chose to use a range of Arduino boards for their initial designs and testing. What began as a simple Arduino UNO-based circuit quickly evolved into an AI-enabled neuromodulator, leveraging the Arduino Nano 33 IoT’s built-in internet connectivity. Mobile devices are connected to the board via Bluetooth® Low Energy to allow precision protocol delivery and ability to adjust the protocol through Python® and integration with other devices. Altogether, the capability to leverage Arduino’s vast collection of libraries and hardware ecosystem ensured rapid progress could be made in a cost-effective manner.

Finding like-minded partners is the key to success!

As a leading startup in the emerging neurotechnology space, BrainPatch.AI  had the opportunity to meet with Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi at Hardware Pioneers Max 2023 in London. The team was eager to demonstrate how effective their neuro stimulation device is, and to share how integrating Arduino hardware enabled them to move quickly – and can also be the go-to solution for many other startups and neurotechnology enthusiasts in the future. Nickolai adds, “Arduino is simply the best solution for any hardware / middleware / software startup prototyping, and we were blessed to have Arduino products and third-party libraries available when we needed them the most, to kickstart the process of transformation from ideas onto the physical objects. And now, we are ready to share our technology and our libraries with the world and other startups. If you are a co-founder of a startup, you must try our device when you get overstretched and overstressed. It’s life changing – and all thanks to Arduino.” 

The current iteration of the company’s e-Meditation and VR enhancement products along with more information about the science behind non-invasive neuromodulation can be found here on BrainPatch’s website.

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Two NEW Arduino Plug and Make Kit projects recreate iconic vintage games

The Plug and Make Kit is a toolbox you can use for infinite ideas. So what happens if you ask a mix of Arduino designers, engineers, and managers to sit down and brainstorm new ideas to have fun with it? Well, at least one of them is guaranteed to come up with an adorable, old-school, […]

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The Plug and Make Kit is a toolbox you can use for infinite ideas. So what happens if you ask a mix of Arduino designers, engineers, and managers to sit down and brainstorm new ideas to have fun with it? Well, at least one of them is guaranteed to come up with an adorable, old-school, slightly addictive video game. 

That’s exactly how Luca Doglione developed Flappy LED and LED Pong, during a “Make Tank” workshop we held in our Turin, Italy office a few weeks ago!

Meet Luca Doglione, Plug and Make Kit Star

Doglione is an engineering manager for the Arduino software and cloud teams, and one of the key people behind our website, cloud services, and course platform. He likes games in any shape or form, from board games to competitive computer games to vintage 2D arcade games. During the workshop, he was inspired by the different types of Modulino nodes and how they can be used together.

Flappy LED

Using Modulino Distance, Modulino Knob, Modulino Buzzer, and Modulino Buttons, Doglione quickly came up with a simple way to interact with the LED matrix on the Arduino UNO R4 WiFi, all of which are included in the kit. 

The goal of the game is to guide an LED dot up and down to avoid obstacles as you go – just like you would do with the bird in Flappy Bird. The longer you are able to avoid collisions and keep the LED moving, the higher the score!

You can control the movement of the LED light in two alternative ways: turning the knob, or moving your hand up and down above the distance sensor. You choose which mode you prefer by simply pressing the corresponding button on Modulino Buttons (A for the encoder or C for the distance sensor). 

Follow the full tutorial on Project Hub to build this quirky game yourself, and let us know how you customize or expand it. The sky’s the limit!

LED Pong

Doglione worked out Flappy LED so quickly that he had time to ideate a second game. He immediately thought of the classic Pong, and created his own version with Plug and Make Kit. This project is just as portable and easy to recreate as the first, and can be played by two people together. 

LED Pong requires two Modulino Knob: since each kit includes one per type of the seven nodes currently available, it is also a great idea for a collaborative making session with a friend! 


The knobs are used to move the paddle and bounce the ball back and forth. Missing the ball gives the other player one point – as neatly displayed on the Modulino Pixel. The first to reach five points wins! 

The full tutorial is here on Project Hub: try it out, and you’ll quickly bounce from nostalgia to excitement over how many new ideas Plug and Make Kit will unlock!

From reimagining old games to learning new tricks!

After seeing his playful ideas come together so easily, Doglione says, “My favorite part of Plug and Make Kit was being able to bypass the electronics to focus on user experience and interaction. This really unleashed my creativity. Having to figure out circuits always stopped me from tackling complex hardware projects – and I have a degree in computer science! Having that little yellow base and modular Modulino nodes made it really satisfying to see my project looking neat.”

What do you think about Doglione’s games? And what vintage games could you recreate with Arduino Plug and Make Kit? 

Flappy LED

LED Pong

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This Strandbeest-style coffee table can deliver drinks

More than 30 years ago, Dutch artist Theo Jansen began astounding the world with his Strandbeesten walking sculptures. Even after decades, they have an almost mythical allure thanks to the incredibly fluid way in which they walk. They’re clearly constructs, but with gaits that are almost organic. Inspired by his fellow Dutchman, Giliam de Carpentier […]

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More than 30 years ago, Dutch artist Theo Jansen began astounding the world with his Strandbeesten walking sculptures. Even after decades, they have an almost mythical allure thanks to the incredibly fluid way in which they walk. They’re clearly constructs, but with gaits that are almost organic. Inspired by his fellow Dutchman, Giliam de Carpentier built a motorized Strandbeest-style coffee table capable of delivering drinks.

This coffee table, dubbed “Carpentopod,” walks on six leg mechanisms that look and operate a lot like those of a Strandbeest. They convert rotary motion into complex foot movement through a series of rigid linkages.

de Carpentier was able to develop the legs’ gait and physical geometry using software he first created way back in 2008. It automatically optimizes the design through a process very similar to natural selection, with the most successful descendants going on to reproduce and ultimately yield very effective geometry for the giving constraints. de Carpentier’s software was efficient enough to evolve dozens of generations every single second, so it produced an optimized leg design in short order.

In this case, “optimal” mostly means “smooth.” When walking, it almost looks as stable as if it were rolling on wheels. It is, therefore, perfectly capable of carrying drinks without spilling them.

In contrast to the classic Strandbeesten, de Carpentier wanted this coffee table to be controllable. So, it has a pair of geared brushless DC motors to drive the legs. Like a tank, it steers by turning one side’s motor faster than another. An Arduino Nano board controls those motors, which have Hall effect encoders for closed-loop feedback, according to input that it receives from a Nintendo Wii Nunchuk via a Bluetooth module. With power from a large hobby LiPo battery back, it can roam around de Carpentier’s living room at his command. 

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Giving a teenage pet turtle a synthetic pizza-ordering voice

If B. F. Skinner’s famous research proved anything, it is that virtually all animals are capable of some degree of training. Training is really just taking advantage of an animal’s natural inclination to adapt for survival, which is something all living organisms do. With that in mind, YouTuber Bao’s Builds constructed a box to give […]

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If B. F. Skinner’s famous research proved anything, it is that virtually all animals are capable of some degree of training. Training is really just taking advantage of an animal’s natural inclination to adapt for survival, which is something all living organisms do. With that in mind, YouTuber Bao’s Builds constructed a box to give his teenage pet turtle a synthetic voice capable of ordering pizza.

The turtle, Lightning, just reached its 18th birthday and Bao decided that this would be the perfect gift. Like those mats covered in buttons that really smart dogs press with their paws to talk, Bao wanted Lightning to have a device with buttons assigned to specific requests, like “feed me” or “play with me.” Turtles aren’t quite as intelligent as border collies, so Bao decided the device only needed four buttons — turtles have pretty modest wants and needs, anyway.

Aside from the buttons themselves, which are standard arcade buttons, the key hardware components for this project are an Arduino Nano, a generic sound module, and a speaker. That sound module stores audio clips on an SD card to play whenever the Arduino makes a request. It also has a built-in amplifier, so it can feed a signal directly to the speaker. The sound clips contain realistic AI-generated voices: one for requesting food, one for requesting pets, and one for expressing love.

The final button orders pizza, which is the favorite food of teenage turtles (mutant or otherwise). That works by playing a sound file that tells an Amazon Echo to have Alexa place an order at Dominos. 

Sadly, Lightning seems to have struggled to grasp the concept — maybe Skinner was wrong, after all. But that’s probably a good thing for limiting the Bao’s Dominos budget.

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Arduino CLI 1.0 is out!

We are excited to share some incredible news with you all! We recently released the Arduino CLI version 1.0.0, marking a significant milestone for our software. This release is a big deal because it signifies the stabilization of the software API, bringing greater reliability and predictability to our users and developers leveraging it in their […]

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We are excited to share some incredible news with you all! We recently released the Arduino CLI version 1.0.0, marking a significant milestone for our software. This release is a big deal because it signifies the stabilization of the software API, bringing greater reliability and predictability to our users and developers leveraging it in their projects.

The Arduino CLI offers multiple ways to integrate and utilize its capabilities:

  • Command line interface: The most straightforward way to use Arduino CLI is through its command line interface. This allows you to manage boards, libraries, compile sketches, and upload code to your Arduino boards with ease.
  • gRPC interface: For more advanced use cases, the Arduino CLI provides a gRPC interface. This enables developers to interact with the CLI using their preferred programming language, allowing for the creation of custom applications and services that leverage the full functionality of the Arduino ecosystem. The gRPC interface is particularly useful for building complex workflows and creating custom IDEs or plug-ins.
  • Go module: You can also use Arduino CLI’s packages within your own applications written in the Go programming language. By importing the source code, you can embed the functionality of the Arduino CLI directly into your projects. This approach is beneficial for developers who want to integrate the tool seamlessly into their own software.

You can find more information about the different ways the Arduino CLI can be integrated in your software in the official documentation.

It’s been almost two months since the release of version 1.0.0, and we are now at version 1.0.4. In this short time, we have been working hard to address issues, fix bugs, and enhance the software. We are committed to delivering the best possible experience for our users, and each new version brings us closer to that goal.

For a comprehensive overview of the features included in Arduino CLI version 1.0.0, please refer to the official release notes. This list details all the enhancements, improvements, and new functionalities that make this release a significant step forward for our community.

To minimize the impact on our users, we accumulated almost all of the breaking changes for the 1.0.0 release, allowing us to clean up early design errors and other issues in one major event. From now on, our backward compatibility policy is designed to ensure stability and predictability for our community, specifically for the Arduino CLI. For more details about this policy, you can refer to the relevant documentation.

As we continue to build upon this foundation, we are looking forward to delivering even more improvements and new features in future releases. Thank you to our amazing community for your support and feedback – we couldn’t have reached this milestone without you. Stay tuned for future updates, and thank you for being part of this journey! 

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Exercise while you game with this interactive treadmill add-on

Motion-based controls for games have been around for decades, but even with the latest generation of virtual reality headsets, gaming is still done with relatively limited movement unless one has access to an expensive VR walking/running setup. As an effort to get more physical activity in, Iacopo Guarneri has developed a motion-capturing add-on that can be […]

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Motion-based controls for games have been around for decades, but even with the latest generation of virtual reality headsets, gaming is still done with relatively limited movement unless one has access to an expensive VR walking/running setup. As an effort to get more physical activity in, Iacopo Guarneri has developed a motion-capturing add-on that can be worn while on a treadmill, stationary bike, or elliptical to control in-game actions.

The wearable device itself is comprised of two components: an Arduino Nano and a six-axis MPU-6050 inertial measurement unit (IMU), which captures changes in velocity and orientation. Both of these parts are housed in a custom 3D-printed case that can be attached to the user’s back via a strap. In the sketch, the Nano continuously reads motion data from the IMU, packs it into a serialized representation, and sends it over serial to the host machine for further processing.

Unlike how running in a video game is performed by holding the left joystick up, the accelerometer outputs a sine wave in the Z-axis while the user is bobbing up and down, which necessitated the use of a smoothing function to prevent sudden stops and starts. Turns, however, are much simpler, as the user’s left or right tilt can be directly translated into sideways motion. Once both axes have been calculated, the virtual gamepad’s inputs are updated with the new values and sent to the game.

You can read more about Guarneri’s project here on Hackster.io.

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This miniature monorail stays upright with the help of gyro stabilization

Most monorail systems, like the kind at Disney and in Las Vegas, stay upright because the “rail” is actually a very wide beam. The car’s load tires (often literal truck or trailer tires) roll on top of that beam and guide tires clamp the sides of the beam, preventing the car from getting tippy. But […]

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Most monorail systems, like the kind at Disney and in Las Vegas, stay upright because the “rail” is actually a very wide beam. The car’s load tires (often literal truck or trailer tires) roll on top of that beam and guide tires clamp the sides of the beam, preventing the car from getting tippy. But what if the rail were more like a conventional train track? In the case of Hyperspace Pirate’s monorail model, active gyro stabilization is the key.

Nobody has really produced a working full-scale gyroscope-stabilized monorail system since first conceived by Louis Brennan in 1903, because the idea simply isn’t practical at that size. Active gyroscope stabilization requires a lot of energy and is quite complex. If anything goes wrong, disaster is just around the corner. But on a small model scale, such considerations are much less relevant.

Hyperspace Pirate took advantage of that fact to create a shrunken-down version of the 20th century experimental monorail that travels along a 24″ track. It uses a control moment gyroscope (CMG) to keep the car upright on the single narrow rail. A CMG like this one uses a spinning mass’s inertia to resist torque that would change the axis of rotation. If you’ve ever played with one of those gyroscope hand exercise balls, this works in a similar manner. This monorail utilizes two of them to counteract side-to-side tipping, while cancelling out the tendency of them to reduce forward-backward tilting. 

The challenge with this design is that it requires active actuation of the individual CMG flywheels, which is a major reason why it would be impractical at a full-scale. But Hyperspace Pirate was able to solve that problem by using an Arduino Nano board to tilt the spinning flywheels using servo motors. It does so in response to any tipping, which it detects using an MPU6050 IMU sensor. 

With some added outrigger weights, similar to a tightrope-walker’s pole, Hyperspace Pirate was able to build a monorail that seems to work fairly well. 

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Enhance your IoT dashboards with Arduino Cloud’s new Image widget

At Arduino, we’re constantly working to improve your IoT management experience. Today, we’re excited to announce a new feature for Arduino Cloud that will allow you to enhance your IoT dashboards: the Image widget. The new Image widget The Image widget is a simple yet powerful addition to your Arduino Cloud toolkit.  With this new […]

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At Arduino, we’re constantly working to improve your IoT management experience. Today, we’re excited to announce a new feature for Arduino Cloud that will allow you to enhance your IoT dashboards: the Image widget.

The new Image widget

The Image widget is a simple yet powerful addition to your Arduino Cloud toolkit. 

With this new widget, you can either upload a static image in formats like GIF, JPG, or WEBP, with a size limit of 5MB or specify a URL where the image is located.

You can choose between two display options: 

  • Fill the widget frame (cropping may occur).
  • Fit the image within the frame (no cropping).

You can customize the widget frame by showing or hiding it, and select a white or gray background. Best of all, no Thing variable is needed!

5 tips to enhance your IoT dashboards in Arduino Cloud

The Image Widget isn’t just about aesthetics; it brings several practical advantages to your Arduino Cloud experience. Here’s how this simple addition can make your IoT dashboards look better:

1. Create a banner for your dashboard: Add a personalized header to your dashboard with your company or project logo.

2. Identify sections of your dashboard with descriptive pictures: Use icons or images to visually categorize different parts of your dashboard, making it more intuitive to navigate.

3. Separate sections with an image acting as a separator: Improve the visual organization of your dashboard by using images as dividers between different sections.

4. Make your dashboards look prettier: Enhance the overall aesthetic appeal of your dashboards with carefully chosen images that complement your data visualizations.

5. Show camera snapshots: You can upload a picture taken from a camera at regular intervals or specific events, upload it to a fixed URL on a web server and display the picture in the dashboard.

How to use the Image widget

Adding the Image widget to your Arduino Cloud dashboard is a fairly straightforward process:

1. Open your Arduino Cloud dashboard.
2. Click on the “Add Widget” button.
3. Select “Image Widget” from the list of available widgets.
4. Upload your desired image (mind the 5MB size limit and file format) or indicate the image URL.
5. Choose your display option: Fill widget or Fit image.
6. Fine tune the final appearance: Decide whether to show or hide the widget frame and select your preferred background color (white or gray).
7. Position and resize the widget on your dashboard as needed.

Wait, what is Arduino Cloud?

New to Arduino Cloud? Arduino Cloud is an all-in-one IoT solution that empowers makers, IoT enthusiasts, and businesses to create, monitor, and control their IoT devices from anywhere in the world. With its intuitive interface, stunning customizable dashboards, and sharing capabilities, Arduino Cloud makes it easy to bring your IoT projects to life and collaborate with others.

Key features of the Arduino Cloud include:

  • Zero-touch online development environment
  • Real-time device monitoring and control
  • Customizable dashboards with a variety of widgets, including our new Image widget
  • Over-the-air updates for connected devices
  • Secure data and sketch storage and management
  • Easy sharing and collaboration tools for team projects

Get started with the new Image widget

The new Image widget is just one of the many ways we’re working to improve your experience with Arduino Cloud. By allowing you to personalize and organize your dashboards more effectively, you can make your IoT projects not just functional, but also visually appealing and intuitive. Check our documentation to learn more.

Ready to try out the new Image widget? Log in to your Arduino Cloud account today and start enhancing your dashboards for free. If you’re new to Arduino Cloud, there’s never been a better time to start. Sign up now and discover how Arduino Cloud can streamline your IoT development process.

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Storing ephemeral micropoetry on RFID cards for bite-sized readings

Most people don’t consume poetry in the same way that they do novels. Instead of reading a book of poetry from cover-to-cover over the course of a few sessions, the majority of people seem to prefer enjoying poetry in occasional little chunks. And unlike the epic poems of Greek antiquity, those tend to be short […]

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Most people don’t consume poetry in the same way that they do novels. Instead of reading a book of poetry from cover-to-cover over the course of a few sessions, the majority of people seem to prefer enjoying poetry in occasional little chunks. And unlike the epic poems of Greek antiquity, those tend to be short and sweet. Leaning into those tendencies, Roni Bandini built this RFID device to read micropoetry.

“Micropoetry,” in this context, is a style of short poem consisting of three lines. Each of those lines can contain up to 16 characters. That is roughly similar in overall length to a haiku, but doesn’t have any rules regarding syllables. In fact, some haikus couldn’t fit in this micropoem structure, as the lines would contain too many characters.

If these rules seem awfully specific, that’s because they aren’t arbitrary. Bandini created them so that the poems can fit within the limited storage of MIFARE Classic 1k RFID chips. MIFARE didn’t design those to store any significant amount of data, but rather for saving critical attributes like IDs. These rules ensure that MIFARE Classic 1k RFID tags can contain micropoems. Bandini even created a handy utility to write the poem’s lines into a card’s memory.

With that structure defined, Bandini built a device to let users read the stored poetry. When someone is in the mood for some poetry, they can simply place a micropoem RFID card on the device. An Arduino UNO R4 WiFi board will then scan the RFID chip using an MFRC522 module, read the stored data, and display the poem’s lines on a 1.3” 128×64 OLED screen. 

As an added dramatic bonus, one datum in the RFID chip’s memory is a counter. On each read, the device increments that counter. When it reaches three, the device deletes the poem from the chip’s memory forever. 

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