A hybrid brain–computer interface based on the fusion of electroencephalographic and electromyographic activities

Abstract

Hybrid brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are representing a recent approach to develop practical BCIs. In such a system disabled users are able to use all their remaining functionalities as control possibilities in parallel with the BCI. Sometimes these people have residual activity of their muscles. Therefore, in the presented hybrid BCI framework we want to explore the parallel usage of electroencephalographic (EEG) and electromyographic (EMG) activity, whereby the control abilities of both channels are fused. Results showed that the participants could achieve a good control of their hybrid BCI independently of their level of muscular fatigue. Thereby the multimodal fusion approach of muscular and brain activity yielded better and more stable performance compared to the single conditions. Even in the case of an increasing muscular fatigue a good control (moderate and graceful degradation of the performance compared to the non-fatigued case) and a smooth handover could be achieved. Therefore, such systems allow the users a very reliable hybrid BCI control although they are getting more and more exhausted or fatigued during the day.

A regularised EEG informed Kalman filtering algorithm

“…Our proposed IKF achieved a near-optimal performance over a wide range of SNR, highlighting the consistency of our algorithm. In future, the concept of IKF can be introduced in multimodal applications such as in hybrid brain-computer-interface (hBCI) [11] to enhance the performance.…”

The hybrid Brain-Computer Interface: a bridge to assistive technology?

“…These include other biosignals (e.g., electromyogram, [3]) as well as signals from manual controls such as from ADs (e.g., mouth mouse, push buttons, … [4,5]). A "fusion" collects all control signals and generates a new control signal out of all those inputs.…”

Reaching and grasping a glass of water by locked-in ALS patients through a BCI-controlled humanoid robot

“…However, given the relentless clinical decline, patients become quadriplegic and anarthric in the advanced stages of the disease, a condition termed locked-in syndrome (LIS) (Smith and Delargy, 2005). These patients often find muscle-based control systems fatiguing, and BCIs could then provide a complementary means of communication (Leeb et al, 2011).…”