One of the major human developments in the 21st century is the creation of new ways to allow people to interact and immerse with the world around them, such as touch technology and virtual reality. With every new development, there has been rapid technological advancement across fields. Brian-Computer Interface has the potential to bring human interaction to a new level. However, current non-invasive brain technology is extremely limited in capability. For example, on the consumer end, current technology has only allowed for meditation-based applications. On the other hand, more highly capable brain technology is expensive, requires surgery and can take many months to learn to use. The proposed project will develop the first low-cost non-invasive brain-computer interface that allows for never before seen real-time control of devices. This would create new methods of interaction for everyone and also transform the lives of millions of people with severe disabilities.
This I-Corps team will develop a consumer product including hardware and software. The hardware will be a headset that includes a two-electrode behind-the-head wireless electroencephalography (EEG), along with visual stimuli and a unique software that allows computer to detect and determine a person?s intent using only brain activity. The product will allow for real-time control with similar performance compared to invasive methods, all with a non-invasive, quick setup headset and our innovative brain signal processing algorithms. The product will function better (much higher accuracy) in people with severe impairments, does not require eye gaze, and can be set up and learned to be used in only five to ten minutes. The Brian-Computer Interface product can be used to interface between operators and equipment in a wide variety of industries such as transportation, aerospace, manufacturing, education, communication and medicine. The team intends to apply the technology in commercial and industrial electronic control, assistive technology developers (e.g. wheel chair control), Brain-Computer Interface enthusiast and researchers, gamers or game developers and toy makers (e.g. virtual reality).
