EEG- and EOG-Based Asynchronous Hybrid BCI: A System Integrating a Speller, a Web Browser, an E-Mail Client, and a File Explorer

Abstract

This paper presents a new asynchronous hybrid brain-computer interface (BCI) system that integrates a speller, a web browser, an e-mail client, and a file explorer using electroencephalographic (EEG) and electrooculography (EOG) signals.More specifically, an EOG-based button selection method, which requires the user to blink his/her eyes synchronously with the target button's flashes during button selection, is first presented. Next, we propose a mouse control method by combining EEG and EOG signals, in which the left-/right-hand motor imagery (MI)related EEG is used to control the horizontal movement of the mouse and the blink-related EOG is used to control the vertical movement of the mouse and to select/reject a target. These two methods are further combined to develop the integrated hybrid BCI system. With the hybrid BCI, users can input text, access the internet, communicate with others via e-mail, and manage files in their computer using only EEG and EOG without any body movements. Ten healthy subjects participated in a comprehensive online experiment, and superior performance was achieved compared with our previously developed P300-and MI-based BCI and some other asynchronous BCIs, therefore demonstrating the system's effectiveness.

Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) Control of a Virtual Assistant in a Smartphone to Manage Messaging Applications

“…From the proposals mentioned in Table 1 , only those related to [ 14 , 15 , 18 , 22 ], have employed subjective measures for the assessment of the application used. However, none of these proposals employed the SUS; only [ 14 , 15 ] employed the NASA-TLX, and [ 18 , 22 ] used some ad hoc items. Subjective questionnaires may be susceptible to the presence of certain biases, such as social-desirability bias [ 56 ].…”

“…The average total workload score was 31.55 ± 17.44 points, which can be considered reasonably low. In relation to the works that used this questionnaire, both [ 14 , 15 ] only reported the values related to the subdimensions and not the total workload. On the one hand, in [ 14 ] it was found that the subdimension that contributed most to workload was performance, with a score of around 50 and 80 points, while the remaining subdimensions were around 20 and 40 points on average.…”

“…Table 1 includes those proposals that, to our knowledge, have implemented a BCI system based on the EEG signal for the control of patients’ everyday devices (systems that presented simulated environments have not been included). Note that two of these systems [ 14 , 15 ] do not only use EEG as input but use electromyography (EMG) or electrooculography (EOG) as well, resulting in hybrid BCIs.…”

A Bipolar-Channel Hybrid Brain-Computer Interface System for Home Automation Control Utilizing Steady-State Visually Evoked Potential and Eye-Blink Signals

“…In comparison with the previous relevant research [ 29 , 30 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ] (listed in Table 3 ), instead of using the eye-tracking to detect the eye movement, this study applied the eye blinking to be a trigger in this control system. In the eye-tracking system, the extra device is required to monitor the eye movement.…”

“…A review article [ 28 ] proved that hybrid BCI systems could provide more commands and provide the potential to increases the classification accuracy and information transfer rates. It was also determined by recent literature [ 29 , 30 ] on the hybrid BCI system, which used EEG (i.e., SSVEP and MI) and eye blink/movement signals as the input for a speller.…”