Audio-cued SMR brain-computer interface to drive a virtual wheelchair

Abstract

In this work, an electroencephalographic analysis-based, self-paced (asynchronous) brain-computer interface (BCI) is proposed to control a virtual wheelchair using three different navigation commands: turn right, turn left and move forward. In order to reduce the probability of misclassification, the BCI is to be controlled with only two mental tasks (relaxed state versus imagination of right hand movements) using an audio-cued interface. Six healthy subjects participated in the experiment. After two training sessions controlling a wheelchair in a virtual environment using both a visual and auditory interface, all subjects successfully controlled the wheelchair in the last session, where the interface was only auditory. The obtained results support the use of the proposed interface to control a real wheelchair without the need of a screen to provide visual stimuli or feedback. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.