The brain-computer interface researcher’s questionnaire: from research to application

Abstract

Over the last decades, the brain-computer interface (BCI) research field has seen steep progress and now recognizes several types of applications, each with its own target population. Despite this evolution, BCIs seem to remain a research application, and are hardly used in daily life at home, work or in the clinic. Therefore, as a field, we need to take the next step and make sure that we develop BCIs that can, and will, be used outside the laboratory. To this purpose, BCI researchers worldwide were approached by email with the request to fill out a questionnaire, aimed at laying out the near and far future of the BCI field. We show that researchers are quite optimistic about the feasibility of having BCIs applied in real life. Also, we identify the hurdles that need to be taken before these applications become commercial products and the research activities required to accomplish this.