title: Playing checkers with your mind: an interactive multiplayer hardware game platform for brain-computer interfaces.
abstract: In this paper we describe a multiplayer brain-computer interface (BCI) based on the classic game of checkers using steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEPs). Previous research in BCI gaming focuses mainly on the production of software-based games using a computer screen--few hardware-based BCI games using a physical board have been developed. Hardware-based games can present a unique set of challenges when compared to software-based games. Depending on where the user is sitting, some stimuli might be farther away from the player, at a steeper viewing angle, conflated with competing stimuli, or occluded by physical barriers. In our game, we light squares on a checkerboard with flickering LEDs to elicit SSVEP responses in the subjects. When a subject attends to a particular square, the resulting SSVEPs are classified and a robot arm moves the selected piece. In a set of pilot experiments we investigated the ability of two subjects to use the SSVEP-based hardware game platform, and assessed how interstimulus distance, interstimulus angle, distance between target stimulus and subject, number of competing stimuli, and visual occlusions of the stimuli influence classification accuracy.
authors.forename: Aadeel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Akhtar
authors.forename: James J S
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Norton
authors.forename: Mahsa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kasraie
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bretl
mesh_terms: D062207:Brain-Computer Interfaces; D003201:Computers; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D010988:Play and Playthings; D055815:Young Adult