Electroencephalophone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An electroencephalophone is a musical instrument which uses brain waves (measured in the same way as an EEG) to generate or modulate sounds.
One was designed by Erkki Kurenniemi, a Finnish electronic musician and artificial intelligence researcher, in the 1960s.
In the 1970s, David Rosenboom used EEG based devices to enable performers to create sound and music with their brain waves.
Eduardo Reck Miranda is currently (~2004) involved in research which uses neural networks and brain interfaces to create music.
The term also is use by columnist William F. Buckley Jr. to disparage others.<ref>National Review. (August 28, 1987). James Reston steps down. Volume 39. Pg. 20. ("It requires uncommon skill to do this; and, more, Scotty Reston's liberal encephalophone sometimes gave off a rare, and for that reason striking, air of civility.")</ref><ref>Buckley Jr., William F. (February 6, 1995) National Review. Loony drug laws. (Column) Volume 47; Issue 2. Pg. 83. ("But mostly because big brother (William F. Buckley Jr.) is a coward, and there is just that chance that a lurking narc would spot him paying cash for enough marijuana to relieve baby sister and decide that was a dreamy photo op, I mean not on the order of Zapruder or Rodney King, but it would be fun to be the cause of sending that right-wing encephalophone off to prison for a couple of years for violating the drug laws.")</ref><ref>Buckley Jr., William F. (February 5, 2001) National Review. On the Right - Pardon Clinton !#*!(Brief Article)(Column) Volume 53; Issue 2. ("The way to handle Clinton is to get rid of objective requirements to pay him notice. It would be ideal simply to close him off as an overexposed public-policy encephalophone, but there is no way to put Bill Clinton in Coventry; he commands too many legions. What you can do is avoid formal entanglements before grand juries and petit juries and courts of appeal-where it all ends knows only God.")</ref><ref>Schmidt, Julian. (June 6, 2005) National Review. Notes & asides.(Letter to the Editor) Volume 53; Issue 2. Pg. 17. ("Dear Mr. Buckley: You can call off the hunt for the elusive "encephalophonic." I have it cornered in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, where the noun "encephalophone" is defined as "an apparatus that emits a continuous hum whose pitch is changed by interference of brain waves transmitted through oscillators from electrodes attached to the scalp and that is used to diagnose abnormal brain functioning." I knew right where to look, because you provoked my search for that word a generation ago, when I first (and not last) encountered it in one of your books. If it was used derisively about you, I can only infer that the reviewer's brain was set a-humming by a) his failure to follow your illaqueating (insnaring) logic, b) his dizzied awe at your manifold talents, and/or c) his inability to distinguish lexiphanicism (the use of pretentious words) from lectio divina. I say, keep it up. We could all do with more brain vibrations.") </ref>
