OpenBCI has a growing community of scientists, engineers, designers, makers, and a whole bunch of other people who are interested in furthering our understanding of the brain. We feel that the biggest challenges in understanding what makes us who we are cannot be solved by a company, an institution, or even an entire field of science. Rather, we believe these discoveries will be made through an open forum of shared knowledge and concerted effort by people from many different disciplines.

Today, the leading brain-computer interface (BCI) companies distribute fixed devices with limited or closed access to the algorithms that translate raw EEG signals to meaningful data. These devices are powerful and effective for application development but not ideal for R&D requiring adjustable hardware setups and direct control over the signal processing techniques. OpenBCI is fully accessible and powered by an open-source community of hardware and software builders, making it easy for creators of any skill level and ideal for researchers who haven’t yet settled on the perfect system design. The OpenBCI platform is intended to serve as a malleable starting point in the rapidly growing field of brain-computer interfacing.