Last month I presented "Mind Control Your Computer" (using the Emotiv EPOC Neuroheadset) at the excellent UX Brighton 2012, You can watch the 32 minute video here. Of all the conferences and events I attended this year I have to say I enjoyed UX Brighton the most - great attention to detail and really interesting people. You can watch all 8 videos of UX Brighton 2012 here (there are some really excellent presentations there).

Alternatively if you're really into the Emotiv you can watch a full hour on this subject from the same session I gave at NDC 2012 at http://vimeo.com/43549132 or you can listen to a .NET Rocks podcast at http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=702.

This week I spoke at the NDC Oslo conference for the first time. This post is about this conference.

The Norwegian Developers Conference, now in its fifth year, is run by Jakob Bradford, Henriette Holmen and Kjersti Sandberg of ProgramUtvikling, a Norwegian training company with a UK arm (called Developer Focus) in London.

NDC has ~1500 attendees, 9 simultaneous tracks, 106 speakers, 40+ sponsors (with ~20 stands) and lasts 3 days. Logistically this is a very significant event. The speakers are chosen from ProgramUtvikling trainers, major industry players and anyone else who chooses to submit papers that are interesting enough. The selection committee is made up of 3 or 4 developers and as such you get an agenda full of really interesting subjects.

The opening keynote was by Aral Balkan who started NDC with a song. But that doesn't really do it justice. It was a full blooded rock opera performance of Pity The Child from Chess The Musical complete with laser lighting. Clearly Aral is hoping to start/revive a significant singing career.

There were a number of interesting features about NDC that I thought worth noting:-

• The conference staff all wear conference shirts with their given names printed in large letters on their backs. This is really helpful when you don't know the organisers.
• The attendee badges have QR codes to allow vendors (and attendees) to scan you and get your contact details immediately.
• Food is available throughout the conference. There are no set meal times. The queues for food at lunchtime were quite long but once you understood you could eat at anytime it meant you could plan around it.
• Food is only available in the sponsor area. There are many separate food stations serving drinks, curry, hot dogs, noodles, ribs and a salad bar. Unlike US and UK conferences where sugar is unfortunately very evident there are no snacks like ice creams, chocolate bars and granola bars.
• Attendees evaluate speakers by walking past a table just outside the presentation room and dropping either a green, yellow or red card into a box. The speaker's rating is therefore the ratio of green to yellow to red cards. There are pieces of paper next to the cards where attendees could write comments if they wanted to but I didn't see any attendees ever writing comments. I confess I'm really not a fan of the green/yellow/red card system. Nearly all attendees simply drop a green card in the box. The distinction between a good presentation with no complaints and nothing wrong with it and a great presentation brilliantly delivered with profound content is completely lost.
• The speaker hotels are between 1 and 5 minutes walk from the venue. This is exactly how it should be. Unlike the 30 (minimum) minutes travel from hotel to venue at TechEd Berlin.
• All sessions at NDC are recorded and then made available to everyone (regardless of whether you attended NDC) for free.
• One of the great innovations at NDC is the Overflow Room. This is a large area with 8 screens showing all of the sessions except for the workshop session. Prior to arriving in the Overflow Room you get a set of headphones attached to a radio device (your badge is scanned so they know who to come to if you don't give it back). You then switch between any one of the 8 channels to listen to the audio of the screen you are looking at. This is of course only possible because all sessions at NDC are already being recorded (and then live streamed to the Overflow Room). The benefit of this feature for the attendee is that you are not committed to any one session and can switch between sessions as easily as flicking a switch.
• I saw two presentations where the speakers used Visual Basic.NET. I can't remember the last year I saw someone present using Visual Basic.NET.
• Sponsorship costs between 59000 and 70000 Norwegian krone depending on when you purchase sponsorship (that's between 6300 UKP and 7500 UKP). The early bird All Access Pass for attendees for all 3 days plus workshops is 14900 Norwegian krone (1600 GBP). The early bird price for 1 day is 6900 Norwegian krone (740 UKP). So at a guess the minimum revenue for NDC 2012 is 1,362,000 UKP (40 sponsors * 6300 UKP plus 1500 attendees * 740 UKP).

The speaker event on the first evening was a boat trip with beers and prawns. I had some good conversations (and an especially dodgy one involving cats and bats). Carl Franklin provided the musical entertainment. As he confirmed at the Attendee Party the next evening Carl has a great voice, smooth and gritty in all the right places.

The attendee party was on the second night and was held in the exhibition area. Entertainment was provided by Carl Franklin, Donkeyboy and LoveShack. It was notable for Microsoft's dancing girls and developer song.

My one and only session at NDC was "Mind Control Your Computer In C#". It went well and I was very happy with it. You can download the slides and source code. Thanks to everyone who attended.

Scattered around the exhibition area were various forms of entertainment including an AC/DC pinball machine which always pulls me in. I had to play. I was very pleased to get the high score and win a pair of Beat Solo HD Monster headphones from Experis Manpower Group - thanks, guys.

So I have to say I was really impressed with NDC. A very professional, large scale event. Well done, Jakob and Henriette, you've done a grand job.

NDC 2013 will be from 12th to 14th June 2013. You also might like to know that an NDC UK event is a possibility for the future.

Recently I have been showing the Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset in a presentation called "Mind Control Your Computer In C#". The neuroheadset scans brain waves and interprets facial expressions (Expressiv), emotions (Affectiv) and cognitive thought (Cognitiv). During my presentation I show all three of these but demonstrating emotions live is quite difficult because it is tough to force yourself to be interested or excited on demand. Listening to recorded music doesn't produce a significant emotional response from me either. So I seized an opportunity at the weekend. I attended a music festival and recorded the Affectiv output whilst listening to two different types of music.

The first is a slow blues by Patrick Smet. I like slow blues and I like Patrick Smet's performances but you can see the effect that the slow blues has on me as the piece progresses. In particular watch the black line (Instantaneous Excitement) and the red line (Engagement/Boredom). After 2 minutes you will see a considerable drop and a stability in both lines. Also note that the red line starts around 0.8 and drops to around 0.6 or lower for most of the piece.

The second piece is a fast boogie by Big John Carter. I like fast boogie and I like Big John Carter's performances. Again watch the red and black lines. In particular notice them after about 1 minute 40 seconds. The red line (Engagement/Boredom) averages around 0.8 often peaking at 0.9. The black line (Instantaneous Excitement) frequently hits 1.0. Also note the plummeting of the black line at the end of the piece.

I found this experiment very interesting. Clearly it is not without its flaws. For example you can't see what I was looking at whilst I made this recording and this would have an effect on the fluctuating emotional levels. I also can't explain why my Frustration levels (the blue line) go up sometimes when I'm clearly enjoying the music.