AI Quantum Cypher EEG Mind Control

Inspiration

The dream was to control immersive AR environments without touching a thing — just pure thought. With Snap acquiring NextMind and launching Spectacles 5, the future of brain-controlled AR suddenly became real. I wanted to combine everything I’ve been working on — AI, neural input, Unity, Snap AR — into one real-time pipeline. This was my shot.

What it does

AI Quantum Cypher bridges the brain to augmented reality. Using EEG signals from the Snap-acquired NextMind device, the system triggers real-time actions in Unity and Snap’s Lens Studio running on Spectacles 5 AR glasses.

You blink, focus, or visualize — and cubes animate, effects trigger, or AR filters activate. No hands. Just neural signals, processed through a WebSocket pipeline.

How we built it

• Connected the NextMind EEG headset to a custom Node.js WebSocket server
• Built Unity and Lens Studio scenes with triggerable actions (e.g., rotating cubes, visual effects)
• Mapped EEG events to trigger functions inside both environments
• Built and tested the full pipeline live at MIT x Snap Hackathon @ AWE 2025
• Ran the system on a custom Linux-based media OS (AI Quantum OS)

Challenges we ran into

• Snap’s Spectacles 5 and NextMind SDKs had limited documentation
• EEG signals were noisy and unpredictable at times
• Cross-platform real-time triggering introduced latency and sync issues
• Unity and Lens Studio version compatibility required workarounds

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Live demo of real-time EEG-triggered AR effects at AWE
• Fully functional WebSocket bridge between Unity and Lens Studio
• Hands-free, mind-controlled AR experience with actual hardware
• Built a custom dev environment tailored for AI + neural input media

What we learned

• EEG control is feasible today — but takes tuning and patience
• Spectacles 5 have powerful potential when paired with custom inputs
• WebSockets are a reliable real-time protocol for multi-platform AR control
• Hackathons are the best testing grounds for bleeding-edge ideas

What's next for AI Quantum Cypher EEG Mind Control

• Add AI models for adaptive EEG signal filtering and prediction
• Combine EEG with gesture and voice input for full multimodal AR control
• Expand to full immersive spatial storytelling and gaming applications
• Pitch to Snap, Niantic, and others — and open source key components

Built With

• ai-quantum-os
• c#
• eeg-trigger-logic
• hackathon
• javascript
• lens-studio
• linux
• mit
• nextmind-eeg-sdk
• node.js
• snap-ar-api
• snap-spectacles-5
• unity
• websocket