Brain-computer interfaces and use thereof
a brain-computer and computer technology, applied in the field of bioengineering and computer technology, can solve the problems of low signal-to-noise ratio, low signal-to-noise ratio, and high cost of good recording equipmen
Inactive Publication Date: 2013-05-23
KATHOLIEKE UNIV LEUVEN
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- Abstract
- Description
- Claims
- Application Information
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Benefits of technology
This patent describes two technical effects. The first is a method for selecting items of interest using visual evoked potentials. The second is a method for creating a brain-computer interface that works well with portable recording equipment.
Problems solved by technology
The technology as it exists today faces two mayor limitations when applied for day-to-day use: good recording equipment is expensive, bulky, uncomfortable and requires the help of a second person to apply (1) and when compared to traditional input devices, such as keyboards, mice and game controllers, BCI control is slow and inaccurate (2).
This poor performance brings about the second limitation.
Fast and accurate control requires a detailed decoding of the measured EEG signal, which becomes increasingly hard when the algorithms not only have to deal with interfering unrelated brain activity, but also sensor noise.
This is the main reason why many commercial products today offer very limited BCI control to the user, working with concepts as relaxation / stress, meditation and detecting the user's mood, all of which boil down to analyzing different bands in the frequency spectrum of the recorded signal.
Modern clinical EEG equipment provides a superior signal to noise ratio, but has the downside of being not only expensive but also requiring the application of conductive gel and the help of a second person to place the electrodes on the scalp.
These games are controlled by measuring the power of the user's brain activity in certain frequency bands (e.g. alpha, beta or mu power), which changes slowly, severely restricting the speed and accuracy of the control.
Some games effectively can only give the illusion of control to the player.
However, it has received much critique, as the brain activity of the player has very limited influence, as demonstrated by taking off the headset and still being able to play the game by linking the electrodes together using a wet towel.
Just like the MindBall game, the MindFlex recording set is limited to recording alpha and theta band power.
However, the mental command appear too hard to reliably decode from the EEG signal, as many reviews of the set point out that achieving control is very hard.
The Enobio set, developed by Starlab, aims for academic and clinical EEG research and therefore has no commercial game options at the time of writing.
Such a scheme doesn't allow the player to directly control the game in term of commands like ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘push this button’, but rather enhance the game with a new task: to concentrate while playing.
However, reviews indicate that the system does not always live up to its expectations.
The challenge is to come up with a control scheme that allows the player to issue fast and accurate commands that are robust enough to work even when the signal quality leaves much to be desired.
However, this technique requires the frequency of the stimulus to be extremely stable, something that is not easy to achieve with LCD screens and multitasking, general purpose computers which are not designed for precision timing.
Since the spectral content of the EEG signal needs to be determined over a time window, the precision with which the stimulus frequency can be detected impedes the possibility to perform a rapid detection of the moment the subject looks away.
The detection problem, therefore, becomes more complex since now, one of several possible flickering frequencies fi need to be detected from the EEG recordings.
In spite of the reported high transfer rates, achieving a reliable and fast classification still remains problematic.
Furthermore, when using too short intervals, neighboring frequencies can not be distinguished because of the limited spectral resolution.
Method used
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Embodiment Construction
[0072]The present invention will be described with respect to particular embodiments and with reference to certain drawings but the invention is not limited thereto but only by the claims. The drawings described are only schematic and are non-limiting. In the drawings, the size of some of the elements may be exaggerated and not drawn on scale for illustrative purposes. The dimensions and the relative dimensions do not correspond to actual reductions to practice of the invention.
[0073]Furthermore, the terms first, second and the like in the description and in the claims, are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking or in any other manner. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances and that the embodiments of the invention described herein are capable of operation in other sequences than described or illustrated herein.
[0074]Moreover, t...
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A computerized method for decoding visual evoked potentials involves obtaining a set of brain activity signals, the brain activity signals being recorded from a subject's brain during displaying a set of targets on a display having a display frame duration, at least one target being modulated periodically at a target-specific modulation parameter and decoding a visual evoked potential (VEP) from the brain activity signals. The decoding includes, at least for the at least one target being modulated at a target-specific modulation parameter, determining a representative time track from the obtained brain activity signals, the representative time track having a length being integer multiples of the display frame duration, analyzing at least one amplitude feature in the representative time track, and determining a most likely target of interest or absence thereof based on said analyzing.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to the field of bioengineering and computer technology. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and systems for decoding visual evoked potentials, as well as use of such methods and systems for providing a brain-computer interfacing. The visual evoked potentials thereby typically may be steady-state visual evoked potentials recorded while a subject is looking at stimuli displayed using certain modulation parameters.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Research on brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) has witnessed a tremendous development in recent years, and is now widely considered as one of the most successful applications of the neurosciences. Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI) is a technology that aims to achieve control of a computer system by thought alone. This is achieved by measuring the user's brain activity and applying signal processing and machine learning techniques to interpret the recordings and act ...
Claims
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IPC IPC(8): G06F3/01
CPCA61B5/0478A61B5/048A61B5/04842G06F3/01A61B2562/046G06F3/015A61B2562/0209A61B2562/0215A61B5/291A61B5/374A61B5/378
Inventor VAN HULLE, MARCMANYAKOV, NIKOLAY V.VAN VLIET, MARIJN
Owner KATHOLIEKE UNIV LEUVEN
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