William Finucane of Revolt Lab has hacked a pair of goggles over at Mad Science to make LEDs flash in front of the eyes. The strange-looking contraption is a DIY dream controller!
The idea behind it all is to try and induce lucid dreaming. This is the type of dream where you are aware that you are dreaming but do not wake up. When you are in this state of dreaming you can control your dream and effectively dream about what you want.
The googles are designed so that two hours after sleeping - when you are in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep - the LED lights flash every ten minutes in front of your eyes. This triggers your brain into realising that you are dreaming, but not wake you up and so allow you to control your dream.
It's certainly not a beginner project, involving circuit boards and soldering, but if you are that way inclined it may be a project to try. However, I have to say that anything DIY involving your eyes scares me a little.
The message in the comment by Dave D1 is a great idea - to hack your bedside lamp into flashing in the same way. This takes away the scariness of using LEDs so close to your eyes.
There's even a reader - Michael Paul Coder - who has created a headband that detects the wearer's heartbeat. This can then detect REM. He has created a programme that plays audio when it's detected. Every other day he sends the logs of the most interesting tracks off! I really want to believe his comment about teaching himself to blink in morsecode, but the sceptic in me thinks he's just kidding!
I'm impressed by the levels that people will go to in order to control their dreams! I'd be interested to hear how many people have actually made these goggles work for them.
[Image via Mad Science]
