A Mobile Brain-Computer Interface for Clinical Applications: From the Lab to the Ubiquity

摘要

Technological advances during the last years have contributed to the development of wireless and low-cost electroencephalography (EEG) acquisition systems and mobile brain-computer interface (mBCI) applications. The most popular applications are general-purpose (e.g., games, sports, daily-life, etc.). However, clinical usefulness of mBCIs is still an open question. In this paper we present a low-cost mobile BCI application and demonstrate its potential utility in clinical practice. In particular, we conducted a study in which visual evoked potentials (VEP) of two subjects were analyzed using our mBCI application, under different conditions: inside a laboratory, walking and traveling in a car. The results show that the features of our system (level of synchronization, robustness and signal quality) are acceptable for the demanding standard required for the electrophysiological evaluation of vision. In addition, the mobile recording and cloud computing of VEPs offers a number of advantages over traditional in-lab systems. The presented mobile application could be used for visual impairment screening, for ubiquitous, massive and low-cost evaluation of vision, and as ambulatory diagnostic tool in rural or undeveloped areas.