Relax in your own personal "space". A new PIC-based brainwave relaxation design generating selectable Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Theta fields.

Published in July '99, the EPE Mood PICker and its predecessor the EPE Mood Changer (June '98) both proved to be extremely popular with constructors. These devices generated weak magnetic fields at "brainwave" frequencies, which are thought to encourage mental states of relaxation, creative mental imaging and even sleep. In fact, much of the feedback received from constructors concerned the ability to induce sleep, since it has frequently proved very helpful in cases of insomnia.

Various ways of encouraging the brain to generate specific electrical frequencies exist, one of which is exposure to a suitable alternating magnetic field. Opinions on how this works vary but one likely method seems quite simple. An alternating magnetic field induces electrical currents in conductive material within range and brain tissue is such a conductor.

It seems likely that the production of weak currents of suitable frequency within the brain will either tend to produce the desired mental state directly, or it may do so by encouraging the brain to "synchronize" to the frequency. Either way, the effect is one many people find worthwhile as shown by the interest in the projects published so far in EPE and EPE Online.

Both of these produce tiny localized magnetic fields. This new project represents an attempt to increase the effect by delivering a much larger current into an inductive loop system which may be placed right around a small room (or around a bed in the case of insomnia!) to permeate a whole area with the desired field.

Roughly speaking, it can saturate an area of up to four meters square with a field of intensity equal to that of one of the previous designs at a range of about three centimeters. This should be sufficient for the most ardent enthusiast of the system.