Brain Computer Inteaface
Swapnil Vasaikar
Abstract
Being fully awake and alert but trapped in a body that is unable to move or speak must be very frightening and frustrating. The main difficulty that is they are not able to express themselves. This is often the situation for patients in the late stages of Lou Gehrig's disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS). Now there is new hope that computers may be able to help these patients to communicate by. in a way. "Reading their minds." The interface relies on the biosignal originated from brain waves. These are sent to computer for processing by the means of a Brain Computer Interface (BCl) such as simple word processing, moving robotic limbs, playing videogames through the use of a brain computer interface (BCl).
These requirements have resulted in experiments that rejy highly on directional attention patterns and selection among stimuli presented simultaneously or very close together in time. Absence of a detailed understanding of the complex physiological and psychological means of producing the responses, experimenters depend on response traces in the Electroencephalogram (EEC). The EEC with surface mounted electrodes provides a minimally invasive way to detect brain activity. Many experimenters cite its shortcomings stemming from the extreme reduction of billions of simultaneous electrical events to a few traces, and the attenuation of weak signals by the skull. Some experimenters suggest surgical implantation and single-neuron sensing as supporting more reliable detection. Such techniques have low relevance for BCl applications in normal individuals. BCl technology is beginning to provide severely disabled individuals with alternative communication options.
