A CNN-Based Deep Learning Approach for SSVEP Detection Targeting Binaural Ear-EEG

This paper discusses a machine learning approach for detecting SSVEP at both ears with minimal channels. SSVEP is a robust EEG signal suitable for many BCI applications. It is strong at the visual cortex around the occipital area, but the SNR gets worse when detected from other areas of the head. To make use of SSVEP measured around the ears following the ear-EEG concept, especially for practical binaural implementation, we propose a CNN structure coupled with regressed softmax outputs to improve accuracy. Evaluating on a public dataset, we studied classification performance for both subject-dependent and subject-independent trainings. It was found that with the proposed structure using a group training approach, a 69.21% accuracy was achievable. An ITR of 6.42 bit/min given 63.49 % accuracy was recorded while only monitoring data from T7 and T8. This represents a 12.47% improvement from a single ear implementation and illustrates potential of the approach to enhance performance for practical implementation of wearable EEG.