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Towards solving of the Illiteracy phenomenon for VEP-based brain-computer interfaces.
Ivan Volosyak1, Aya Rezeika, Mihaly Benda
1Faculty of Technology and Bionics, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, 47533 Kleve, Germany.
Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express
|January 13, 2021
Summary
This study shows that modern visually evoked Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems, particularly code-modulated VEPs (cVEP), overcome previous BCI illiteracy issues. All participants successfully used cVEP BCI, demonstrating high performance and usability.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Biomedical Engineering
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems translate brain activity into commands, aiding individuals with disabilities.
- A significant portion of users (15-30%) historically struggle with BCI proficiency, termed 'BCI illiteracy'.
- Recent advancements in visually evoked potentials (VEPs) challenge the concept of BCI illiteracy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the performance and usability of three modern VEP-based BCI paradigms.
- To investigate the impact of demographic factors and user preferences on BCI performance.
- To re-evaluate the notion of 'BCI illiteracy' in the context of advanced VEP BCIs.
Main Methods:
- Comparison of three VEP-BCI paradigms: Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials (SSVEPs/fVEP), Steady-State motion Visual Evoked Potentials (SSmVEP), and code-modulated Visual Evoked Potentials (cVEP).
- Assessment of BCI performance metrics including information transfer rate and accuracy.
- Collection of data on user experience, fatigue, and demographic factors.
Main Results:
- Demographic factors, handedness, vision correction, and prior BCI experience did not significantly affect VEP-BCI performance.
- Most participants found the visual stimuli non-annoying, with minimal fatigue reported.
- Code-modulated VEP (cVEP) demonstrated the highest performance, with all 86 subjects achieving high accuracy (97.83%) and information transfer rate (40.23 bit/min).
- Conventional SSVEPs (fVEP) and SSmVEP also showed high success rates (83 and 80 subjects, respectively) with good performance metrics.
Conclusions:
- The term 'BCI illiteracy' may no longer apply to proficient users of modern VEP-based BCIs.
- cVEP-based BCIs offer a highly effective and accessible communication solution, achieving near-universal usability.
- VEP-based BCIs are robust, with performance largely independent of user-specific demographic characteristics.
