Applications for Brain-Computer Interfaces

Abstract

Brain-computer Interfaces (BCIs) have been studied for nearly thirty years, with the primary motivation of providing assistive technologies for people with very severe motor disabilities. The slow speeds, high error rate, susceptibility to artifact, and complexity of BCI systems have been challenges for implement- ing workable real-world systems. However, recent advances in computing and bio- sensing technologies have improved the outlook for BCI applications, making them promising not only as assistive technologies but also for mainstream applications. This chapter presents a survey of applications for BCI systems, both historical and recent, in order to characterize the broad range of possibilities for neural control.