BRAIN COMPUTER INTERFACE (BCI)

2nd year Computer Science and Engineering, St. Xaviers Catholic College of Engineering Chunkankadai, Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, India SUKAN.M & VINU JOSEPH

Absract: A brain-computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain-machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between human brain and a computer. It either accepts commands from the brain or sends signals to it. Recent studies have demonstrated that monkeys and humans can use signals from the brain to guide computer cursors. This motivates us to assist patients suffering from neurological injury or disease using BCI. This paper proposes a method to use brain waves collected by EEG to control the movement of a wheel chair.

neuroscientists have been able to decode neuronal signals into movements. Completing the translation, researchers have built interfaces that allow patients to move computer cursors, and they are beginning to build robotic limbs and exoskeletons that patients can control by thinking about movement.

Introduction: When we talk about interfacing with a computer we typically mean typing at a keyboard or using a mouse. This technique investigates using a new communication channel - the EEG. The EEG, or electroencephalogram, is the electrical activity recorded from the scalp and produced by neurons in the brain. The development of a Brain Computer Interface, or in our case, an EEG-based communication device, requires the raw EEG signal to be converted into a new output channel through which the brain can communicate and control its environment. How does it Capture Brains Signal? BCIs focusing on motor neuroprosthetics aim to either restore movement in individuals with paralysis or provide devices to assist them, such as interfaces with computers or robot arms.To capture electrical signals from the brain, scientists have developed microelectrode arrays smaller than a square centimeter that can be implanted in the skull to record electrical activity, transducing recorded information through a thin cable. After decades of research in monkeys,

EEG: Electroencephalography (EEG) is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp. EEG measures voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain. The brain's electrical charge is maintained by billions of neurons. Neurons are electrically charged (or "polarized") by membrane transport proteins that pump ions across their membranes. Neurons are constantly exchanging ions with the extracellular milieu, for example to maintain resting potential and to propagate action

Based on the latest developments in neurotechnology, Emotiv has developed a revolutionary new personal interface for human computer interaction. The Emotiv EPOC is a high resolution, neuro-signal acquisition and processing wireless neuroheadset. It uses a set of sensors to tune into electric signals produced by the brain to detect player thoughts, feelings and expressions and connects wirelessly to most PCs. Implementing On Wheel Chair: The emotive epoch headset consists of 14 EEG electrodes. Brain produces signals in micro volts(mV). The emotive epoch headset detects and amplifies the EEG signals and with the Bluetooth device attached, the signals are sent to the laptop. The software analyses the brain signals as to which action has to be performed and the required instruction sets are sent to the microcontroller attached to the wheel chair. Initially, under neutral conditions that is when the brain is relaxing, is taken as the reference, the person is then allowed to think a particular action, example moving the chair forward by sitting on it. When a specific action is being thought, a certain kind of brain wave is produced which is captured by the sensors present in the emotiv epoch and via Bluetooth the signal is transferred to the laptop where it is processed and the corresponding signal is sent to the microcontroller. During functioning of the wheel chair, when a match is found i.e. a signal already being fed is encountered again, the action corresponding to the signal is implemented.

potentials. Ions of like charge repel each other, and when many ions are pushed out of many neurons at the same time, they can push their neighbours, who push their neighbours, and so on, in a wave. This process is known as volume conduction. When the wave of ions reaches the electrodes on the scalp, they can push or pull electrons on the metal on the electrodes. Since metal conducts the push and pull of electrons easily, the difference in push or voltage between any two electrodes can be measured by a voltmeter. Recording these voltages over time gives us the EEG. When talking about electroencephalography, we are talking about three fields of interests. Spontaneous activity is measured on the scalp or on the brain and is called the electroencephalogram. The amplitude of the EEG is about 10 to 100 V when measured on the scalp, and about 1-2 mV when measured on the surface of the brain. The bandwidth of this signal ranges from under 1 Hz to about 50 Hz. This activity goes on continuously in the living individual. So an absence of this indicates brain death. Evoked potentials are responses to a stimulus (which may be electric, auditory, visual, etc.). These are usually below the noise level. So it is important to improve the signal-to-noise ratio when measuring these. Single-neuron behavior can be examined by microelectrodes impaling the given cell. These studies are to build models of cellular neuralnetworks that will reflect the actual properties of a brain. Emotiv EPOC:

Applications: Brain controller Car_University of Berlin

The EPOC is used by the autonomous labs to drive their "MadeInGermany"-car. This is a semi-automatic system, the car is equipped with lots of different sensors, and can navigate to an intersection automatically. Once there, the user can choose the next direction using the Emotiv Epoc. This project is fairly simple, even with the extended control possibilities it only uses 4 actions (accelerate, decelerate, turn left and right). Additionally, there is a noticeable lag time, which is problematic ion real life usage.

Conclusion: As we can see there are many useful applications of brain computer interface. It can be very helpful for people with moving disabilities as human - machine interface. But it can be also used for control of human body muscles.There are also many possibilities in military domain. Last are the applications for making our lives easier. So one day maybe all people are wearing bci-caps and using hands only for eating. Or even without caps but with implants right in CNS. To bring this in reality it has to be developed more adaptable bci system and foremost avoid all risks.

NeuroPhone - Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA It is a brain-controlled address book dialing app for iPhone, which works on similar principles to P300-speller brain-computer interfaces. The P300 signal is the name of a task specific signal, what can be measured more or less everywhere on the scalp. Is someone focuses on a task, and it is stimulated somehow (for example the desired picture flashes), the P300 signal is elicited. The phone ashes a sequence of photos of contacts from the address book and a P300 brain potential is elicited when the ashed photo matches the person whom the, user wishes to dial. Although the application works properly, it is quite simple: only one dimension of choice. The advantage of this is it runs perfectly on limited hardware such as a smartphone.