A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is a new input device to control a computer with brainwaves. Therefore electrodes are mounted on the head and the signals are amplified. Such a BCI system can be controlled e.g. by the P300 EEG response. Therefore different characters are arranged on a computer screen and are highlighted in a random order. If the subject is focused on one specific character that is flashing up the P300 response is induced and the BCI system is able to recognize this response and therefore the character.
In this example the P300 based BCI system was connected to a Virtual Reality (VR) system. The virtual 3D representation of the smart home had different control elements (TV, music, windows, heating system, phone,…) and allowed the subjects to move through the apartment. Some tasks could be done, like playing music, watching TV, open doors, moving around... Therefore seven control masks were created: a light mask, a music mask, a phone mask, a temperature mask, a TV mask, a move mask and a go to mask. The controlling mask for the TV is shown in Fig 1.
Fig.1: The TV BCI controlling mask.
Each mask contained 13 to 50 commands. In Fig. 2 the Goto mask is shown. The mask gives a bird’s eye view of the apartment with characters at specific positions. For going e.g. to the couch you have to focus on the "B".
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A P300 based BCI system is optimally suited to control smart home applications with high accuracy and high reliability. As the BCI and P300 method works fine with the Powerwall (shown in Fig.3), the system can act as cheap test environment for real smart homes for paralyzed patients.
Fig.3: One Smart Home Subject in front of the Powerwall
BCI and VR - Control the Smart Home by your thoughts e (WMV 4,62MB)
The work was funded by the EU project PRESENCCIA
and performed with Chris Groenegress and Mel Slater from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona.