Validation and Benchmarking of a Wearable EEG Acquisition Platform for Real-World Applications

This paper presents the experimental validation of a readout circuit for the acquisition, amplification, and transmission of extremely weak biopotentials with a focus on electroencephalography (EEG) signals. The device, dubbed CochlEEG, benefits from a low-power design for long-term power autonomy and provides configurable gain and sampling rates to suit the needs of various EEG applications. CochlEEG features high sampling rates, up to 4 kHz, low-noise signal acquisitions, support for active electrodes, and a potential for Wi-Fi data transmission. Moreover, it is lightweight, pocket size, and affordable, which makes CochlEEG suitable for wearable and real-world applications. The efficiency of CochlEEG in EEG data acquisition is also investigated in this paper. Auditory steady-state responses acquisition results validate CochlEEG's capability in recording EEG with a signal quality comparable to commercial mobile or research EEG acquisition devices. Moreover, the results of an oddball paradigm experiment prove the capability of CochlEEG in recording event-related potentials and demonstrate its potential for brain-computer interface applications and electrophysiological research applications requiring higher temporal resolution.