CVR-BBI: an open-source VR platform for multi-user collaborative brain to brain interfaces

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality

Background:

• Brain-to-brain interface (BBI) research explores cross-brain information exchange and collaborative intelligence.
• Existing platforms lack support for multi-user, collaborative BBI configurations in virtual reality (VR).

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce the Collaborative Virtual Reality Brain-to-Brain Interface (CVR-BBI), an open-source platform.
• Enable rapid and efficient configuration of multi-user, collaborative BBIs within a VR environment.

Main Methods:

• Developed a CVR-BBI platform with client (user participation, EEG data collection, stimulus management) and server (collaboration management, real-time EEG analysis).
• Evaluated the platform using the steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) paradigm.
• Compared collaborative decoding performance against individual decoding.

Main Results:

• The CVR-BBI platform successfully supported collaborative BBI experiments in VR.
• Collaborative decoding within the CVR-BBI platform demonstrated superior performance compared to individual decoding.

Conclusions:

• CVR-BBI is a pioneering open-source platform for developing innovative BBI applications in collaborative VR.
• The platform enhances the understanding of brain collaboration and cognition through advanced BBI research.