Biomedical Regulation and Security
nborgagonzalez
Mehico
So OpenBCI seems like the coolest idea I've seen in a long while - I love it!
*But*, I do have some concerns with respect to regulation and security.
It would seem to me that the data (EEG, EKG, etc.) read by the mainboard and pumped out to wireless USB/RF dongles might very well be considered to be biomedical data, and thus fall under whatever health/safety regulations apply in the given jurisdiction (HIPAA, etc.). Thoughts?
Equally as important is security! It's great that I can stream my EEG brain waves to a laptop via the USB/RF dongle, but what if a hacker were to intercept this and manipulate it somehow? How secure is OpenBCI?
Comments
http://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/search&Search=60601
The cost for regulatory certification is in the tens of thousands of dollars. And of little benefit unless you are selling into clinical / medical markets.
Some security black hat type people are thinking about security issues, but that kind of dystopian fantasy is what they get paid to do.
https://www.google.com/search?q=security+of+brain+technology+data
There is a committee that I know Conor was a part of, that was discussing some of the ethics issues,
https://www.google.com/search?q=brain-computer+interface+ethic
Note that the RFduinos and chipKIT processors are not sophisticated enough to offer much in the way of encryption or privacy features. And such complexity would add considerably to the ease of advancing BCI interfaces and applications.