This Bachelor lecture teaches the basics of programming in the C programming language. Despite its long history, C is still one of the most widespread and important programming languages today, especially for system-oriented programming. It is easy to learn but difficult to master, as it contains only a few keywords and concepts, but these can be used to emulate many modern programming techniques.

In detail, it covers:

• General concepts of programming languages
• Variables and types in C
• Operators and expressions
• Control structures and functions
• The preprocessor
• Pointers
• Static and dynamic memory management
• Error handling
• Bit manipulation
• Modules and abstract data types
• Unit testing and test-driven development in C.

Please note that this is not a lecture on the basics of programming. The lecture builds on the courses "Grundlegende Programmiertechniken" and "Fortgeschrittene Programmiertechniken", i.e. basic programming knowledge (e.g. variables and types, loops, subroutines and recursion) and basic knowledge of data structures and algorithms are assumed.

In previous projects, a processing pipeline for EEG data (electroencephalography) was developed, which utilises the MentaLab Explore+ EEG cap and enables a user to control a computer game avatar using thoughts.

EEG data was collected, labelled and interpreted into game controller commands using artificial intelligence. A Pacman-based video game with a client-server architecture was also implemented in Python. At the same time, work was carried out on improving the EEG recording hardware.

This pipeline is now to be evaluated and optimised. The aims of this semester include the following points:

• Software:
  • End-to-end integration from EEG data collection to the game server
  • Evaluation of prediction accuracy and latency, as well as their effects on immersion in the game
  • Optimisations regarding these points, such as improvements to data collection and processing using AI
• Hardware:
  • Acquiring the raw data from the MentaLab Explore+ with our own ElasticAI.hardware and C-runtime
  • Use of innovative "flower" electrodes from TU Ilmenau with active shielding

In the coming semesters, the AI model will be transferred to our ElasticAI.hardware, which will then function as a game controller.

Organisation:

Attendance at the kick-off meeting is mandatory for participation in this project.