It is impossible for severely disabled people to browse or learn through the Internet due to the mere lack of independent control of the mouse. This paper proposes a brain computer interface (BCI) to aid severely disabled individuals, such as people disabled by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), in browsing or learning on the Internet. By analyzing specific components of event-related potentials (ERPs), cursor control can be achieved. The cursor can be controlled by brain waves in a user-friendly manner to move or click on the webpage. The major contributions of this research include: (1) designing a BCI for disabled people, (2) embedding the BCI's cursor controller into a webpage, (3) conducting clinical experiments, (4) analysing the experimental results, system accuracy, and effectiveness, and (5) evaluating the system's practicability and giving suggestions for future work. There are two innovative technologies proposed in this research: (1) a specific component of ERPs located at O1, the N2P3 (the difference between the peak and trough of N200 and P300), was used to differentiate targeted from non-targeted (non-selected) signals; (2) instead of a fixed position style BCI, a movable watermark style BCI which follows the cursor was designed. The novel technique supported by a user-friendly interface helps the disabled have contact with the outside world resulting in positive emotions.
The purpose of this research is to analyze the event-related potentials (ERPs) of brain waves while engaged in reading in English. The brain wave responses of participants in choosing correct and incorrect answers on English reading tests were studied. Three English reading tests at differing levels of difficulty were used in the experiment and twelve participants (non-native English learners), six males and six females whose ages ranged from 20 to 24, voluntarily participated in the experiment. Experimental results were analyzed by independent t-tests on the EEG potentials of participants having different levels of English proficiency. A significant difference was observed at the frontal lobe under differing conditions. Subjects who chose incorrect answers on the tests elicited a higher N600, a finding similar to that of previous literature. In addition, an interesting result was found: for males, the significant area was located in the right hemisphere, whereas for females, it was in the left hemisphere. This seems to imply that males and females employ different areas of the brain to comprehend the meaning of difficult statements.
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