3 ms·

I run http://openyou.org http://openyou.org, a site dedicated to reversing as many medical devices as we (or, well, at the moment, mostly I) can get our (my) ha

I run http://openyou.org http://openyou.org, a site dedicated to reversing as many medical devices as we (or, well, at the moment, mostly I) can get our (my) hands on. So far, we've put out Emokit (emotiv epoc headset), libfitbit, libomron, and have started libfuelband and libsensewear. The main problem is just time and lack of people resources. We need more people aware that USB/Bluetooth reversing, while somewhat complex, is not all that inherently difficult. 2 or 3 people working together can easily open up a device and protocol format with a minimal amount of [insert language that supports libusb or hidapi] code. However, not many people are interested in learning that, as they just wanna get the data and run. Understandable, but that means you're waiting on one or two people to finish something that they may lose interest in. I've been contemplating trying to teach a usb/bt reversing workshop for years now, I should really get around to trying that soon.

vitovito 14y ago
There's not a lot of help out there for people who are willing to put the time and effort into protocol reversing but don't know where to start! EA put out a fitness video game with a wireless heart rate monitor that showed up as a normal HID device via its USB dongle. On sale it was like $40, making it a very inexpensive way to log heart rate wirelessly. But no-one had reversed the protocol, and I couldn't find any online resources to teach me how to do it myself. I'm pretty sure I threw it out, and the product is discontinued now, but I would encourage you to at least put training materials together, if not a full workshop.
- qdot76367 14y ago
  Yeah, I will admit that information does end up being the main problem. I've been doing this long enough that it's pretty much second nature these days, and I just find myself going "but what is there to teach?". I've taught workshops on other subjects before, and usually once I get going to writing cirriculum that question answers itself in spades, though. Just need the motivation. I'm finishing up another personal project right now, then I may start on this. I suppose I don't really have much room to complain when I've already set out a solution that just needs to be done. :)
  - vitovito 14y ago
    I ran fifteen design workshops in 2010, so feel free to ping me off HN if you have questions or need support. The HID protocol used by the USB version of the Neurosky Mindwave EEG headset is also undocumented AFAIK, and I could test drive your training using that. You might also consider trying out Zed Shaw's "Learn X the Hard Way" format as a framework, which he recently formally published: https://gitorious.org/learn-x-the-hard-way/learn-x-the-hard-way/blobs/master/README https://gitorious.org/learn-x-the-hard-way/learn-x-the-hard-...
    - qdot76367 14y ago
      Huh. I used to maintain bindings for the old bluetooth neurosky mindset for PureData/MaxMSP, never thought about the issues with their new headset with proprietary radio not having drivers. They were usually pretty good about open sourcing stuff too. Last workshop I taught was http://artandcode.com/3d/workshops/2b-teledildonics-with-the-kinect-and-arduino http://artandcode.com/3d/workshops/2b-teledildonics-with-the..., which I had to compress into 3 hours so it was more an overview sort of thing. I think this workshop will require a nice device to start reversing from scratch, which is something else I'm going to have to figure out. Fitbit would suck since you'd have to learn USB, then ANT. Would like to get one HID device, one non-HID, just to cover most of the bases.
segmond 14y ago
very nice, i've been eyeing the emotiv kit, and been delaying because i don't want to pay for the expensive eeg and dev kit version. i'm going to get the epoc soon and hopefully will be able to contribute towards what you guys have done. awesome!

vitovito 14y ago

There's not a lot of help out there for people who are willing to put the time and effort into protocol reversing but don't know where to start! EA put out a fitness video game with a wireless heart rate monitor that showed up as a normal HID device via its USB dongle. On sale it was like $40, making it a very inexpensive way to log heart rate wirelessly. But no-one had reversed the protocol, and I couldn't find any online resources to teach me how to do it myself. I'm pretty sure I threw it out, and the product is discontinued now, but I would encourage you to at least put training materials together, if not a full workshop.

qdot76367 14y ago
Yeah, I will admit that information does end up being the main problem. I've been doing this long enough that it's pretty much second nature these days, and I just find myself going "but what is there to teach?". I've taught workshops on other subjects before, and usually once I get going to writing cirriculum that question answers itself in spades, though. Just need the motivation. I'm finishing up another personal project right now, then I may start on this. I suppose I don't really have much room to complain when I've already set out a solution that just needs to be done. :)
- vitovito 14y ago
  I ran fifteen design workshops in 2010, so feel free to ping me off HN if you have questions or need support. The HID protocol used by the USB version of the Neurosky Mindwave EEG headset is also undocumented AFAIK, and I could test drive your training using that. You might also consider trying out Zed Shaw's "Learn X the Hard Way" format as a framework, which he recently formally published: https://gitorious.org/learn-x-the-hard-way/learn-x-the-hard-way/blobs/master/README https://gitorious.org/learn-x-the-hard-way/learn-x-the-hard-...
  - qdot76367 14y ago
    Huh. I used to maintain bindings for the old bluetooth neurosky mindset for PureData/MaxMSP, never thought about the issues with their new headset with proprietary radio not having drivers. They were usually pretty good about open sourcing stuff too. Last workshop I taught was http://artandcode.com/3d/workshops/2b-teledildonics-with-the-kinect-and-arduino http://artandcode.com/3d/workshops/2b-teledildonics-with-the..., which I had to compress into 3 hours so it was more an overview sort of thing. I think this workshop will require a nice device to start reversing from scratch, which is something else I'm going to have to figure out. Fitbit would suck since you'd have to learn USB, then ANT. Would like to get one HID device, one non-HID, just to cover most of the bases.

segmond 14y ago

very nice, i've been eyeing the emotiv kit, and been delaying because i don't want to pay for the expensive eeg and dev kit version. i'm going to get the epoc soon and hopefully will be able to contribute towards what you guys have done. awesome!