TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kaufmann, Tobias
A1  - Herweg, Andreas
A1  - Kübler, Andrea
T1  - Toward brain-computer interface based wheelchair control utilizing tactually-evoked event-related potentials
N2  - Background

People with severe disabilities, e.g. due to neurodegenerative disease, depend on technology that allows for accurate wheelchair control. For those who cannot operate a wheelchair with a joystick, brain-computer interfaces (BCI) may offer a valuable option. Technology depending on visual or auditory input may not be feasible as these modalities are dedicated to processing of environmental stimuli (e.g. recognition of obstacles, ambient noise). Herein we thus validated the feasibility of a BCI based on tactually-evoked event-related potentials (ERP) for wheelchair control. Furthermore, we investigated use of a dynamic stopping method to improve speed of the tactile BCI system.

Methods

Positions of four tactile stimulators represented navigation directions (left thigh: move left; right thigh: move right; abdomen: move forward; lower neck: move backward) and N = 15 participants delivered navigation commands by focusing their attention on the desired tactile stimulus in an oddball-paradigm.

Results

Participants navigated a virtual wheelchair through a building and eleven participants successfully completed the task of reaching 4 checkpoints in the building. The virtual wheelchair was equipped with simulated shared-control sensors (collision avoidance), yet these sensors were rarely needed.

Conclusion

We conclude that most participants achieved tactile ERP-BCI control sufficient to reliably operate a wheelchair and dynamic stopping was of high value for tactile ERP classification. Finally, this paper discusses feasibility of tactile ERPs for BCI based wheelchair control.
KW  - Brain-computer interface
KW  - Event-related potentials
KW  - P300
KW  - Tactile
KW  - Wheelchair
KW  - Dynamic stopping
Y1  - 2014
UR  - https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/11004
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-110042
ER  -