Better Than Life

The Manipulation of the Human Brain With the Use Of Machines

At DEFCON 12, Ne0nRa1n and myself (JonM) presented a talk on using machines to manipulate the human brain.
Here you will find the slides presented, links to references, as well as the software JonM wrote for the light machine that was demonstrated.

Slides

The slides are available in three formats:

In their original OpenOffice presentation form: BETTER THAN LIFE.sxi (285 kB).
Converted to Microsoft PowerPoint format (boo! hiss!): BETTER THAN LIFE.ppt (357 kB).
Converted to HTML.

Light Machines

There were two light machines presented, one that is tethered to a PC, and one that is self-contained.

Self-contained Light Machine

The self-contained light machine is built using a 555 timer IC. You'll need the following parts:

8 LEDs, any color except blue
1 555 timer IC
1 NPN transistor (such as the 2N3904)
1 4.7 uF electrolytic capacitor
1 0.01 uF capacitor (I used a mylar film model)
1 1 kilo-ohm resistor, 1/4 watt
1 6.8 kilo-ohm resistor, 1/4 watt
1 100 kilo-ohm potentiometer
1 9 volt battery connector
Something to mount the LEDs in, such as a cheap dimestore set of safety goggles.

You'll also need a board to solder everything into...I like the pre-drilled boards you can get with a whole bunch of holes in them (get the one with the copper pads on the holes). Add a soldering iron, some solder, and a bit of wire, and you should be golden.

Here's the schematic (PNG, 25kB).

PC controlled Light Machine

The PC controlled light machine is much easier to build. You'll need:

8 LEDs, again any color but blue
1 PC parallel cable--get this at a used PC shop, and look for one with the disassemble-able connectors
Something to mount the LEDs in, such as a cheap dimestore set of safety goggles.

Again, you'll need a soldering iron, and some solder.

Here's the schematic (PNG, 41 kB).

You'll also need software to run on the computer, to control the goggles. I've written some software for Linux that works fairly well. Here's the source. Build it with GCC, run it as root, at your own parallel.

There is a BASIC program floating around that will do the same thing on a Windows machine. See the Hack Canada link below.