THINK: Toward Practical General-Purpose Brain-Computer Communication

In this paper, we present THINK, a practical general-purpose brain-computer communication platform that relies on the OpenBCI and OpenViBE hardware and software platforms, and allows for a simple three-alphabet vocabulary. Specifically, we consider the scenario where a subject is wearing a sensor array (an electrode cap), and consciously manipulating her thoughts to communicate wirelessly with an external computing entity (a smartphone) without the aid of any external stimuli. Using THINK, we explore general aspects of brain computer communication that are application agnostic. In particular, we study the following questions: (i) what is the accuracy of the system? (ii) how fast can the subject switch thoughts corresponding to symbols; (iii) is there an impact on accuracy with learning time; and (iv) how does accuracy drop with decreasing number of sensors (electrodes)? Using purely experimental analysis, we present some results that provide preliminary answers for these questions.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2015
• Where: MOBICOM
• Authors: Mohit Agarwal, Raghupathy Sivakumar
• Keywords: Communications, MOBICOM 2015