Fund the NIRSport2 · Build FluentPlay's fNIRS capability

Before expression, there is intention.

One internal meaning can become a sentence, a melody, or an image. The campaign's primary objective is to acquire a FluentPlay-owned NIRSport2 fNIRS system capable of measuring the cortical hemodynamic response across all three.

Fund the fNIRS system Why fNIRS is essential

Scroll to enter the research case

Why this matters

A foundational question with consequences far beyond one field.

The first experiment is specific. The capability it establishes is broader: a new way to study how people form intentions, move between symbolic systems, and translate internal meaning into behavior.

01 · Communication

Measure more than the final word.

Connect speech output to the neural and physiological activity that precedes it.

02 · Learning

Understand how meaning travels.

Study whether words, sound, and visual structure preserve shared information.

03 · Human-computer interaction

Build systems around human intent.

Create a stronger foundation for future interfaces that interpret context across multiple signals.

The hardware at the center of the campaign

Why fNIRS is the technology for this job.

FP-fNIRS-001 requires brain imaging that can remain with the participant while speech, humming, and drawing unfold naturally. The NIRSport2 provides a wearable optical measure of cortical hemodynamics without placing the participant inside a scanner.

EEG tells us when fast electrical activity occurs. fNIRS adds a spatially constrained measure of the slower oxygenation response that follows cortical activation. The study needs both.

Light source Detector Short-separation channel

Primary equipment objective Acquire and commission a FluentPlay-owned NIRSport2 research system.

01 · Illuminate

Near-infrared light enters the scalp.

Sources deliver light at wavelengths selected to distinguish changes associated with oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin.

02 · Interact

The light travels through superficial tissue and accessible cortex.

Neural activity changes local oxygen demand and blood flow. Those hemodynamic changes alter how much light returns to the detectors.

03 · Detect

Detectors measure the returning light.

The system converts optical intensity changes into estimates of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin over time.

04 · Map

Channels become a cortical activation pattern.

Source-detector geometry, event timing, short-separation measurements, motion data, and physiological controls are combined to interpret the task-related response.

Why it fits FP-fNIRS-001

The experiment depends on natural expression.

Speech, melody, and drawing cannot be reduced to a button press. The participant must be able to plan, vocalize, move, and create while the system remains synchronized to the task.

Wearable and mobileThe NIRSport2 is designed for portable fNIRS acquisition, allowing expressive behavior outside the physical restrictions of an MRI bore.

Compatible with simultaneous EEGNIRx supports integrated EEG-fNIRS layouts, allowing electrical timing and hemodynamic response to be measured during the same activity.

Built for multimodal researchEvent markers, motion sensing, peripheral physiology, audio, and behavioral recordings can be aligned to the same study timeline.

Short-separation measurementsShort-distance channels help model superficial blood-flow changes that could otherwise be mistaken for cortical activity.

Real-time acquisition visibilityAurora software can display raw optical data and HbO/Hb concentration changes during acquisition, supporting quality control before and during a session.

Why not rely on one existing method?

Each technology answers a different part of the question.

The campaign is not replacing EEG or competing with fMRI. It is funding the missing measurement layer that allows FluentPlay to study cortical hemodynamics during realistic expressive behavior.

EEG

fMRI

fNIRS

Primary signal

Fast electrical activity

Blood-oxygen-level-dependent imaging

Cortical HbO and HbR changes

Core strength

Millisecond-scale timing

High spatial detail and deeper coverage

Wearable cortical hemodynamics during natural behavior

Constraint for this study

Sensitive to eye, face, jaw, muscle, and movement artifacts; limited spatial localization

Restrictive, loud, and poorly suited to natural speaking, humming, and drawing

Slower response and limited to accessible cortex—best used with EEG and artifact controls

Role in FP-fNIRS-001

When activity occurs

Potential later validation study

Where accessible cortical hemodynamic response occurs during the task

What the fNIRS allocation acquires

The complete imaging layer.

The fNIRS allocation is designed to establish an operational system, not purchase a single box without the components required to collect defensible data.

View the NIRSport2 manufacturer platform ↗

NIRSport2 acquisition hardwarePortable optical measurement platform

Sources, detectors, and short-separation channelsCortical coverage and superficial-signal control

NIRScap sizes and optode holdersRepeatable placement across participants

Aurora acquisition softwareConfiguration, signal optimization, recording, and real-time visualization

Synchronization and integration componentsCommon event timing across EEG, physiology, audio, and drawing

Training, commissioning, warranty, shipping, and taxResearch readiness and long-term operation

The study

One meaning. Three forms. A direct test.

FP-fNIRS-001 asks whether a model trained to identify controlled meaning in one expressive modality can identify that same meaning in another.

01 · Intention

The internal state comes first.

A participant receives a controlled emotional scenario and prepares to express its meaning.

02 · Speech

Meaning becomes language.

Vocabulary, syntax, prosody, articulation, and timing transform the internal state into a spoken sentence.

03 · Melody

Meaning becomes sound without words.

Pitch, contour, rhythm, and vocal control create a second expressive system.

04 · Visual art

Meaning becomes spatial form.

Shape, color, movement, pressure, and composition create a third expressive system.

05 · Measurement

Electrical timing meets hemodynamic response.

EEG and fNIRS observe different physiological consequences of the same task. Their convergence strengthens the interpretation.

EEG Millisecond-scale timing

fNIRS Slower cortical hemodynamics

Primary research question

Can the same controlled meaning remain statistically identifiable across different forms of expression?

The study does not claim unrestricted thought reading or a universal emotional code. It tests a narrow, falsifiable question under controlled conditions.

24proposed analyzable participants

4controlled emotional meaning classes

6directional cross-modal transfer tests

The measurement stack

A complete system for one synchronized human event.

The campaign funds a research capability—not a single headset. Every layer exists to capture, align, validate, or interpret the same moment.

01 · fNIRS

NIRSport2 cortical imaging

Measures changes in oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin while participants plan and produce expression.

Maps the hemodynamic response.

02 · EEG

Gel-based electrical recording

Captures rapid electrophysiological timing that fNIRS alone cannot resolve.

Reveals when activity unfolds.

03 · Physiology

EMG, EOG, cardiac, respiration, motion

Measures competing muscle, eye, systemic, and movement effects across the same trial.

Strengthens confidence in the signal.

04 · Behavior

Audio and drawing capture

Connects neural activity to the exact spoken, musical, and visual output produced by the participant.

Links physiology to expression.

05 · Computing

Synchronization, modeling, and secure storage

Aligns every stream, trains the models, preserves the study record, and supports reproducible analysis.

Turns recordings into evidence.

The campaign

$100K

The target is anchored by one essential purchase: a FluentPlay-owned NIRSport2 fNIRS system. EEG, physiological controls, synchronization, computing, training, and independent review complete the environment required to use that hardware responsibly.

$78K

Directly establishes the fNIRS imaging capability.

The dominant share of the campaign acquires and commissions the NIRSport2 system, optical channels, caps, software, synchronization, and the components required for repeatable cortical hemodynamic measurement.

78%

The campaign is fundamentally a hardware raise.

The remaining allocation enables the fNIRS system to work as part of a complete study: EEG, physiology, behavioral capture, computing, independent review, and participant protections.

fNIRS imaging system, caps, optodes, software$78K

Gel-based EEG acquisition$2K

Synchronization, physiology, audio, drawing capture$7K

Research computing, secure storage, integration, training$6K

Independent review, participant protections, shipping, tax, study readiness$7K

Execution

Every phase produces a visible proof point.

The program advances through technical, ethical, and scientific gates. Supporters can see what each stage establishes before the next begins.

Acquire

Equipment, warranty, training, inventory.

Integrate

Caps, sensors, timing, storage.

Authorize

Independent human-subjects review.

Validate

Technical feasibility cohort.

Enroll

Approved formal participant cohort.

Analyze

Unimodal and fused models.

Publish

Results, limitations, use of funds.

Research leadership

Building the research capability now. Adding subject-matter expertise in October.

FluentPlay is currently focused on fundraising, acquiring the fNIRS hardware, and establishing the research infrastructure for FP-fNIRS-001. A subject-matter expert in speech, EEG, fNIRS, and multimodal signal analysis is scheduled to join the work in mid-October 2026.

Why This Exists

William Carbone

Founder of FluentPlay Technologies and a lifelong person who stutters.

William created FluentPlay from lived experience with the physical effort, stress, and social calculation that can come with speaking when you stutter. He is pursuing this work to give people who stutter better ways to explore, practice, and understand their speech—and to help build research shaped by the people it is meant to serve.

OCT

Incoming Subject-Matter Expert

Joining in mid-October 2026

Planned FluentPlay role: Research Scientist — Experimental Design, Signal Analysis, and Validation.

The incoming subject-matter expert is a doctoral researcher completing a PhD focused on speech and multimodal signal analysis, with experience spanning acoustic event detection, EEG and fNIRS methods, statistical modeling, machine-learning classification, feature selection, and interpretable analysis pipelines. Her work with FluentPlay will begin in mid-October 2026.

The sequence

The present campaign funds the hardware and operating infrastructure. Once that research capability is established, the project can move into study development, technical validation, independent review, and participant-facing research.

Scientific integrity

Compelling enough to fund. Precise enough to trust.

The campaign remains ambitious without promising outcomes the study cannot support.

The study can test

Whether controlled meaning is decodable within and across expressive modalities.
Whether EEG and fNIRS provide complementary information.
Whether fused models improve classification.
Whether measured patterns survive explicit artifact controls.
Whether the platform supports future speech and stuttering research.

The study cannot claim

Unrestricted thought reading.
Universal emotional decoding.
Diagnosis or treatment of stuttering.
That fNIRS automatically confirms an EEG signal.
That a missing fNIRS response proves an EEG feature is noise.

Your contribution moves the research forward

Your support can put the fNIRS system in place.

By contributing, sponsoring, providing equipment support, or making a strategic introduction, you can help establish the NIRSport2 research capability that makes FP-fNIRS-001 possible.

Help fund the fNIRS system → willcarbone@fluentplaytech.com

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Campaign launch preparation

Fund the window into cortical activity.

The campaign's primary objective is to acquire and commission the fNIRS hardware that makes FP-fNIRS-001 possible, then integrate it with EEG, physiology, audio, drawing, and secure research computing.

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