A Portable P300-Based Brain–Computer Interface as an Alternative Communication Device

Abstract

Motor and cognitive disabilities may lead to communication difficulties, exacerbated by the intelligibility of speech and gesture. In this context, brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) can be viewed as novel augmentative and alternative communication technologies to assist these people. Despite the extensive research in BCIs during the last decades, portability of most of the studies is still a handicap. In this preliminary work, we present a truly portable P300-based BCI system as an aid for communication in cerebral palsy patients. Our system, that integrates more than 2.000 pictograms to select from, can be installed in any Android device and uses a cloud server to process the electroencephalographic signals of the users. A pilot testing was made with 12 healthy subjects, reaching a mean accuracy of 90%, assuring its viability and suggesting further testing with target users in the near future.

This work has received funding from projects ‘DPI2017-84280-R’ of ‘Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades—Agencia Estatal de Investigación’ and ‘European Regional Development Fund’ (FEDER), and ‘0378_AD_EEGWA_2P’ (Cooperation Programme Interreg V-A Spain-Portugal POCTEP 2014–2020) of the European Commission and FEDER; as well as from the CIBER-BBN through ‘Instituto de Salud Carlos III’. V. M.-C. and E. S.-V. were in receipt of PIF grants from the University of Valladolid and the ‘Consejería de Educación de la JCyL’, respectively.