Exploring virtual environments with an EEG-based BCI through motor imagery.
In this paper, we describe the possibility of navigating in a virtual environment using the output signal of an EEG-based Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). The graphical capabilities of virtual reality (VR) should help to create new BCI-paradigms and improve feedback presentation. The objective of this combination is to enhance the subject's learning process of gaining control of the BCI. In this study, the participant had to imagine left or right hand movements while exploring a virtual conference room. By imaging a left hand movement the subject turned virtually to the left inside the room and with right hand imagery to the right. In fact, three trained subjects reached 80% to 100% BCI classification accuracy in the course of the experimental sessions. All subjects were able to achieve a rotation in the VR to the left or right by approximately 45 degrees during one trial.
Leeb
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R
Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interfaces, Institute for Computer Graphics and Vision, Graz University of Technology, Inffeldgasse 16a, 8010 Graz, Austria. robert.leeb@tugraz.at
Scherer
R
R
Keinrath
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C
Guger
C
C
Pfurtscheller
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G
D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods*; D004777:Environment; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor / Q000502:physiology*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D009862:Online Systems; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D014584:User-Computer Interface