The Making of Brain Painting—From the Idea to Daily Life Use by People in the Locked-in State

Abstract

We describe how the classic P300 based BCI-controlled spelling paradigm was transformed into a painting tool. Initiated by an artist, we (``we'' refers to all people who were involved in the making of Brain Painting at any one time. ``I'', ``me'' or ``AK'' refers to the first author. Individual names/initials are used to identify a specific person being involved in a specific step of the history including end-users with disease) developed Brain Painting in close interaction with two end-users of the technology in the locked-in state due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. We enabled them to use Brain Painting at their home independent of the researchers being present. Throughout the use of Brain Painting we applied measures of effectiveness, efficiency, and end-user satisfaction leading to a unique long-term evaluation covering hundreds of sessions. We demonstrated a positive effect on quality of life, self-esteem, and other measures of well-being. The artists created a plethora of Brain Paintings, which have been shown at several exhibitions. In this chapter, we describe firstly, the history of Brain Painting. Secondly, we explain in detail how the P300-BCI controlled application works. Thirdly, we dwell on how we enabled use of Brain Painting in daily life at the end-users' home. We, fourthly, dedicate a separate section to the impact of Brain Painting on quality of life, and show finally some of the Brain Paintings and summarize the artists' Brain Painting exhibitions. We end with a summary, emphasising that if BCI developers follow the user-centred design, i.e., listen to and interact closely with the targeted end-users of technology, the transfer of BCI-controlled applications out of the laboratory to the end-users' home becomes more likely, feasible and hopefully more real.