A word from the designer . . .
I feel strongly about the importance of aesthetics, and I designed the look and feel of the mandala series as well as the regular graphs to reflect this outlook. Training can be magical when the audiovisual feedback envelope surrounding a person is optimized.
In designing the visual displays for the Bio Integrator, I drew upon all I have learned about how human beings learn most optimally (this includes deep training series with unusual clients as well as my own voyage into the innerverse).
This is just a small sample of the graphical and mandala images available witht the Bio Integrator Plus.
Hope you enjoy the gallery,
Steve Wall, Director
The Bio Integrator breaks new ground with the mandala feedback, offering a lush choice of more than 60 images. I created the art specifically to cultivate self-awareness and enhance the training process. Mandalas as powerful symbols have been used in healing for centuries; the ones included with the Bio Integrator Plus have an even deeper effect because they were designed by a psychophysiological artist to animate as the client activates or relaxes the associated physiology. Learning is accelerated because the mandalas reflect client psychophysiology in an artistic and symbolic way that encourages interest, accelerates the development of somatic awareness, and speeds the transfer of learning into daily life.
The magic of the Bio Integrator Plus is that you can switch between the more analytic feedback style of graphs, which are excellent for showing absolute levels and teaching cognitive concepts of self-regulation, and the more holistic, "feeling" style of mandalas. Experiencing one's measures through imagery tends to be more of a right-hemisphere brain function, and adds an element of aesthetic pleasure that is highly rewarding and greatly strengthens the training process.
The Bio Integrator Plus Mandala images include Tibetan-style mandalas, fractals, three-dimensional artwork, images such as nature scenes, and games (which were designed particularly to appeal to children). You may choose to represent your client's hand temperature (or another measure) with a sunset that builds in a variety of vivid colors on screen as he or she relaxes. Or, you may select a mandala that fills with changing color and shape from the center outward, driven from another measure such as EEG.
The magic of the Bio Integrator Plus is that you can switch between the more holistic, "feeling" style of mandalas, and the more cognitive feedback style of graphs, which are excellent for showing absolute levels and teaching cognitive concepts of self-regulation. Any of our graphical displays can be seen full screen, two graphs per screen, or four graphs per screen. You may choose to place any type of line graph, fill graph, or spectral display in any of the viewports, thus creating thousands of visual combinations that mat be used for training or research.
Line graphs: Line graphs are most useful when you want to see more than one measure on a graph. Each measure is represented by a different colored line traveling across a background color of your choice. There are more than 60 individual and combination line measures providing unparalleled flexibility in looking at multiple measures simultaneously. For example, the exciting training strategy known as RSA training is most optimally conducted when you are able to see two or more heart and respiration measures at once. To do this, simply pick a graph called Heart Rate and Respiration, and you can immediately begin to compare the activity of these two systems and train for their optimal relationship.
Fill graphs: The Bio Integrator Plus supports ultra-smooth animation, making it possible to use fill graphs instead of line graphs in most cases. You may choose among 35 measures to be displayed as fill graphs. Fill graphs have a yellow highlighter at the top (essentially the "line" of a line graph), while the area underneath this line appears in color. Such graphs require much less effort in training; clients don't have to work as hard to get the information as when it is presented in a line graph. Additionally, fill graphs are more entertaining, and provide a clearer sense of history--it's easier to see patterns and trends represented in two dimensions rather than one. Fill graphs present wave-form information more intuitively, and clients can see their activity as it really is, i.e., as energy waves.
Body Mirror: In this display, you can see your left and right EMG levels scrolling from the bottom of the screen to the top; the screen never refreshes, and the image is always there in front of you. In addition, the normal Y-axis scale has been changed, and is now located in the center of the screen on the X-axis. This flowing bilateral EMG display allows you to see absolute and relative EMG values for both sides of your body, almost as though you were looking in a mirror and watching your left and right sides move.
Balance Bar: This display features a balance bar that connects two Y-axes representing EMG1 and EMG2, allowing for a powerful bilateral training strategy. When the bar is horizontal on screen, activity is balanced between the two channels. The bar's position at the top or bottom of the screen indicates the level of activation. Because of our animation techniques, this display is very lively and engaging.
Spectral displays: Spectral displays are one of the most exciting features of the Bio Integrator Plus: For the first time, clients and clinicians may watch and train with real-time EEG data represented by fluid, smoothly animated and aesthetically engaging spectral displays. These displays represent four separate measures: Power, Percent Power, Amplitude, and Synchrony. A spectral display shows frequency distribution in relation to time and a particular variable. These displays show frequency from 3 Hz to 33 Hz. Each color gradient represents a frequency bin that is .8 Hz wide. The entire display animates 10 times per second, allowing for the observation of both gross and subtle brainwave shifts. When the EEG is hooked up in a left- and right-brain montage, it is possible to observe exciting differences within individual clients and across clients.
3D Spectral displays: The Bio Integrator Plus's three-dimensional spectral displays allow the client, clinician, or researcher, for the first time ever, to observe smoothly animating three-dimensional high resolution EEG data for right and left brain activity in real time. These dazzling displays are available for the measures of Power, Percent Power, Amplitude, and Synchrony. As the data scroll upward on the screen, the viewer can see the spectral distribution of EEG activity in the current moment, as well as the recent history that has scrolled past.
Mind Mirror: The mind mirror, a variation on our spectral display technology, shows the arousal continuum from the lower part of the screen (theta) to the upper part of the screen (beta). This graph shows left- and right-brain activity building from the center of the screen outward. This is another one in our series of ultra-fluid spectral displays that are quite dazzling to watch and use for feedback.