How We Made the Most Painful Toy Hack Ever
UPDATE: by popular request, we rewired the machine so that it shocks you if you DON'T concentrate. See the bottom of the page for the video!
We wanted to hack a device, so that unless you remained calm and your brain stayed idle, it would shock the hell out of you. Would the horrible fear of impending pain cause you to clear your mind, or concentrate and receive said pain? Would extended use of the device ruin your neural net so that you could no longer concentrate for fear of being shocked?
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As soon as we saw the Mindflex toy pop up on Gizmodo, I ordered one. I've wanted an electroencephalogram (EEG) since I saw one on Scientific Amercian Frontiers when I was 9. Oh yes, the power to read minds, or at least brainwave activity.
The Mindflex utilizes a wireless headset to detect the frequency of your brain activity. If you are calm and idle, no LEDs will light up. If you are concentrating strongly, all of the LEDs will light up (and a little motor will levitate a ball). I happened to know that Eli, the other founder here at Harcos Labs, absolutely hated being shocked. This project was going to be DELIGHTFUL.
I decided that I would output the top two LED's leads to a transistor/resistor/relay network that would activate an electroshock unit I ordered off QKits. The first LED would power on the electroshock unit and give a painless tingle through a resistor network. The second LED would activate a transistor that would activate a relay that would bypass the resistor network and give the user the full brunt of the electric shock. Initially, I was going to use a separate shocking unit for 3 of the LEDs, but when I put together the unit from QKits, I found that only one was too painful to hold on to for more than few.
You may find the circuit below useful for activating electroshock circuits via digital data. I'd never set up a transistor to use one power source to activate a second power source.
Things I used for this hack:
- 2 x 2N2222 NPN transistors
- 1k to 500k resistors
- 2 x 9 volt batteries
- a few brave souls from SMBC Theater
- a now-angry co-founder
- a QKits electric shock kit
- 1 zener diode (to prevent flyback from the relay coil from frying the transistor)
- 1 LED
Opening the Mindflex unit was difficult. You have to drill out the glued plastic plugs in the bottom and then take out the screws. I still couldn't get it open so I used a Dremel to cut through the side and access the LEDs.
The most difficult part of hooking the Mindflex to the electroshock device was hooking in to the final LED. It had some sort of capacitor that kept holding the transistor closed, which held the relay closed, which shocked you horribly even after the LED turned off. I dropped a resistor and an LED across the contacts and it provided sufficient drain to open the relay.
We used aluminum foil under Mana Potion wrist bands to act as contacts. You can see the results in the video.
As far as biofeedback machines go, I think this is the worst application I've ever seen. I would assume that extended use would cause you to slowly condition yourself to keep your brainwaves at a low frequency, probably impeding concentration and cognition. It is lots of fun watching someone try and relax with the fear of being shocked and usually heckling from bystanders.
One interesting thing I noticed was that most people's brainwave frequency peaked quickly if they just attempted some fine motor skills. In my case, every time I tried to seat a transistor or relay in the prototype board, I'd electrocute myself.
Don't forget to check out our new Nuclear Energy Powder and if you haven't seen it Blood Energy Potion.
As always, questions or comments: hit me at ai.rasmussen@gmail.com
The total cost on this hack was about $105
UPDATE:
Many people asked us to reverse the machine so that if you concentrate, you're okay, but as soon as you start to space off or lose focus, you get shocked. We used a NOT gate operating a switching transistor to to do this:
We took the machine around and shocked a variety of people.There were many different methods to maintain concentration. Some people used fine motor skills (touching letters on a page accurately with the tip of a pen). Some people doubled numbers in their heads. The person who lasted the longest was Tian Mu of Naked Sky Entertainment. He focused on the word "Concentrate" and kept his brainwaves high enough to avoid the shock for 90 seconds. Impressive!
Thanks to Engadget's write-up for the suggestion to hook it up in reverse!
Disclaimers:
1) We're not affiliated with Mindflex, Radio Shack, QKits, Dremel, or anything else you saw us use to build this. Harcos Labs is the exception, because that's who we are.
2) Do this mod at your own risk. There are lots of sharp parts in the Mindflex, a spinning motor and electrocuting yourself is not fun. We do not recommend hooking up higher voltage than what we used in this hack.
3) Taking apart your Mindflex will break it...because that is what you are doing to it.
4) Oh yeah, and if you want the Uranium we referred to in the video, you can get it here!
5) Electricity is dangerous! Shocking people can have unpredictable and potentially dangerous or lethal results, especially because you may not know of a pre-existing condition. BE CAREFUL.
