Algorithm for Detection of Raising Eyebrows and Jaw Clenching Artifacts in EEG Signals Using Neurosky Mindwave Headset

Abstract

The present work proposes an algorithm to detect and identify the artifact signals produced by the concrete gestural actions of jaw clench and eyebrows raising in the electroencephalography (EEG) signal. Artifacts are signals that manifest in the EEG signal but do not come from the brain but from other sources such as flickering, electrical noise, muscle movements, breathing, and heartbeat. The proposed algorithm makes use of concepts and knowledge in the field of signal processing, such as signal energy, zero crossings, and block processing, to correctly classify the aforementioned artifact signals. The algorithm showed a 90% detection accuracy when evaluated in independent ten-second registers in which the gestural events of interest were induced, then the samples were processed, and the detection was performed. The detection and identification of these devices can be used as commands in a brain–computer interface (BCI) of various applications, such as games, control systems of some type of hardware of special benefit for disabled people, such as a chair wheel, a robot or mechanical arm, a computer pointer control interface, an Internet of things (IoT) control or some communication system.