A Cell-Phone Based Brain-Computer Interface for Communication in Daily Life

Moving a brain-computer interface from a laboratory demonstration to real-life applications poses severe challenges to the BCI community. Recently, with advances in the biomedical sciences and electronic technologies, the development of a mobile and online BCI has obtained increasing attention in the past decade. A mobile and wireless BCI based on customized Electroencephalogram recording and signal processing modules has the advantage of ultimate portability, wearability and usability. This study integrates a mobile and wireless EEG system and a signal-process platform based on a Bluetooth-enabled cell-phone into a truly wearable BCI. Its implications for BCI were demonstrated through a case study in which the cell-phone was programmed to assess steady-state, visual-evoked potentials in response to flickering visual stimuli to make a phone call directly. The results of this study on ten normal healthy volunteers suggested that the proposed BCI system enabled EEG monitoring and on-line processing of unconstrained subjects in real-world environments.