BRAIN COMPUTER INTERFACE 1

BRAIN COMPUTER INTERFACE

SEMINAR REPORT

Submitted by

NIBIN BABU
(2201040945)

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

MODEL POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE MATTAKKARA

2024-2025

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CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the seminar report entitled BRAIN COMPUTER INTERFACE is the bonafide record
of the work done by NIBIN BABU (2201040945) of third year polytechnic (ELECTRONICS
ENGINEERING) student as part of his seminar work.

Mr. Thomaskutty Jose Panthanay Mr. Rajesh R

Seminar coordinator Head of the department

Lecturer Dept. of ELE, MPTC Dept. of ELE, MPTC

Internal Examiner External Examiner

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost I thank GOD almighty for showering his blessings upon me throughout the
entire seminar work , my seminar was possible only because of the encourage I received from
all quarters .
I taken This opportunity to express my sincere thanks and gratified go Principle
Mrs. DEEPA M KURUVILLA for providing me with adequate facilities.
I expand my heartfelt thanks to MRS. LEJI PG Head of Electronics And Communication
Engineering for taking personal interest in my seminar.
I am profusely grateful to my seminar coordinators Mr. Rajesh R and Mr. Thomaskutty Jose
Panthanay whose thoughtful commands and constant encouragements improved my seminar
significantly .
I express my sincere thanks to all staff members in the department of Electronics Engineering
who have taken sincere effort in the presentation of my seminar.
Finally, but not all least I would like to acknowledge the heartfelt efforts, commands, criticisms,
Co-operation and tremendous support given to me by dear friends during the presentation of my
Seminar and also during my seminar and also during my presentation without whose support
these Work would have been all the more difficult to accomplish.

NIBIN BABU

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CONTENTS
SLNo TITLE PAGE No
1 INTRODUCTION 6

2 TYPES OF BCIs 7

•Invasive bci
Partially-invasive bci
Non-invasive bci

3 ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM BASED BCI 10

4 HOW BCI WORKS (The Common 15
Structure of a B C I)

•Signal Acquisition
Signal Pre-Processing
Signal Classification
Computer Interaction
5 LIMITATIONS 17

6 APPLICATIONS OF BCI 18

•Bioengineering applications
Human subject monitoring
Neuroscience research
Man – Machine Interaction

Military Applications

Gaming

Counter terrorism

7 PRESENT AND FUTURE 20

8 CONCLUSION 20
9 REFERENCE 21

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ABSTRACT

As the power of modern computers grows alongside our understanding of the human brain,

we move ever closer to making some pretty spectacular science fiction into reality. Imagine

transmitting signals directly to someone's brain that would allow them to see, hear or feel specific

sensory inputs. Consider the potential to manipulate computers or machinery with nothing more

than a thought. It isn't about convenience, for severely disabled people, development of a brain

computer interface (BCI) could be the most important technological breakthrough in decades.

A Brain-computer interface, sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain

machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between a brain and an external device. It

is the ultimate in development of human-computer interfaces or HCI. BCIs being the recent

development in HCI there are many realms to be explored . After experimentation three types of

BCIs have been developed namely Invasive BCIs , Partially - invasive BCI S , Non-invasive BCIs.

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1.INTRODUCTION

Systems capable of understanding the different facets of human communication and

interaction with computers are among trends in Human-Computer Interfaces (HCI). An HCI

which is built on the guiding principle (GP): “think and make it happen without any physical

effort” is called a brain computer interface (BCI).

Indeed, the “think” part of the GP involves the human brain, “make it happen” implies that an

executor is needed (here the executor is a computer) and “without any physical effort” means that

a direct interface between the human brain and the computer is required. To make the computer

interpret what the brain intends to communicate necessitates monitoring of the brain activity.

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2. TYPES OF BCIs

2.1. INVASIVE BCI

Invasive BCI research has targeted repairing damaged sight and providing new
functionality to paralyzed people. Invasive BCIs are implanted directly into the grey matter of the
brain during neurosurgery. Using chips implanted against the brain that have hundreds of pins less
than the width of a human hair protruding from them and penetrating the cerebral cortex, scientists
are able to read the firings of hundreds of neurons in the brain. The language of the neural firings
is then sent to a computer translator that uses special algorithms to decode the neural language
into computer language. This is then sent to another computer that receives the translated
information and tells the machine what to do. As they rest in the grey matter, invasive devices
produce the highest quality signals of BCI devices but are prone to scar-tissue build-up, causing
the signal to become weaker or even lost as the body reacts to a foreign object in the brain.

Figure 1

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2.2. PARTIALLY-INVASIVE BCI

Partially invasive BCI devices are implanted inside the skull but rest outside the brain
rather than within the grey matter. They produce better resolution signals than non-invasive BCIs
where the bone tissue of the cranium deflects and deforms signals and have a lower risk of
forming scar-tissue in the brain than fully-invasive BCIs.Electrocorticography (ECoG) measures
the electrical activity of the brain taken from beneath the skull in a similar way to noninvasive
electroencephalography, but the electrodes are embedded in a thin plastic pad that is placed above
the cortex, beneath the durra mater ECoG is a very promising intermediate BCI modality because
it has higher spatial resolution, better signal to-noise ratio, wider frequency range, and lesser
training requirements than scalp-recorded EEG, and at the same time has lower technical
difficulty, lower clinical risk, and probably superior long term stability than intracortical single-
neuron recording. This feature profile and recent evidence of the high level of control with
minimal training requirements shows potential for real world application for people with motor
disabilities.

Figure 2

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2.3. NON-INVASIVE BCI

The easiest and least invasive method is a set of electrodes, this device known as an
electroencephalograph (EEG) -- attached to the scalp. The electrodes can read brain signals.
Regardless of the location of the electrodes, the basic mechanism is the same: The electrodes
measure minute differences in the voltage between neurons. The signal is then amplified and
filtered. In current BCI systems, it is then interpreted by a computer program, which displayed the
signals via pens that automatically wrote out the patterns on a continuous sheet of paper. Even
though the skull blocks a lot of the electrical signal, and it distorts what does get through it is more
accepted than the other types because of their respective disadvantages.

Figure 3

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3. ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM BASED BCI

Electroencephalography (EEG) is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp

produced by the firing of neurons within the brain.

Figure 4

Among the possible choices the scalp recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) appears to be
an adequate alternative because of its good time resolution and relative simplicity.
Furthermore, there is clear evidence that observable changes in EEG result from performing given
mental activities. The BCI system is subdivided into three subsystems, namely EEG acquisition,
EEG signal processing and output generation.

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Figure 5

General BCI architecture

Figure 6

The EEG acquisition subsystem is composed of an electrode array arranged according to

the 10-20 international system and a digitization device. The acquired signals are often noisy and

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may contain artefacts due to muscular and ocular movements. The EEG signal processing
subsystem is subdivided into a preprocessing unit, responsible for artefact detection, and a feature
extraction and recognition unit that determines the command sent by the user to the BCI. This
command is in turn sent to the output subsystem which generates a “system answer” that
constitutes a feedback to the user who can modulate his mental activities so as to produce those
EEG patterns that make the BCI accomplish his intents. Figure 5 illustrates the basic scheduling
of our BCI. The BCI period is the average time between two consecutive answers and the EEG
trial duration is the duration of EEG that the BCI needs to analyze in order to generate an answer.
We assume that every EEG trial elicits a system answer.

BCI scheduling Figure 7

We call “neutral state” when nothing happens (the BCI provides a neutral answer), the
“active state” when the BCI executes something, the “neutral EEG set” as composed of those EEG
trials that elicit the neutral answer and the “active EEG set” the complement of the neutral EEG
set. The ideal BCI is a two-state machine whose state changes occur at a rate defined by the BCI

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period and are determined by a Boolean variable B1 (activation) which becomes true when the
BCI detects an element of the active EEG set and false otherwise (Figure 6).

Figure 8: Ideal BCI

The ideal BCI behave properly when the recognition error rate is near zero. In a real
application, the false positive error (the system switches to the active state while the
corresponding EEG trial belongs to the neutral EEG set) and the false negative error (the system
switches to the neutral state while the corresponding EEG trial belongs to the active set) are not
zero. Depending on the application, these errors are differently penalized.
We propose a less ideal BCI by introducing a transition state so that the BCI cannot switch
from the neutral to the active state immediately. The BCI remains in the transition state as long
as a second Boolean variable B2 (confirmation) is false (Figure 7).

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Figure 9: Less ideal BCI

B2 is true if the L (latency parameter) previous EEG trials are equally recognized as the
current EEG trial. In practice, for the sake of user comfort the value of L multiplied by the BCI
period should not exceed two seconds.
The BCI parameters are summarized in the following table:

Table 1

The optimal values for the BCI parameters are determined

inthetrainingphase.However,the.should be continuously
updated in order to take into account possible variations in
the EEG caused by different brain’s background activities
over time. Thus, BCI operation requires constant training and
adaptation from both, the user and the computer.

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4.HOW BCI WORKS

Present BCI’s use EEG activity recorded at the scalp to control cursor movement, select
letters or icons, or operate a neuroprosthesis. The central element in each BCI is a translation
algorithm that converts electrophysiological input from the user into output that controls external
devices. BCI operation depends on effective interaction between two adaptive controllers: the
user who encodes his or her commands in the electrophysiological input provided to the BCI, and
the computer which recognizes the command contained in the input and expresses them in the
device control.

Current BCI’s have maximum information transfer rates of 5-25 bits/min.

The common structure of a Brain Computer

Interface is the following :

1) Signal Acquisition: the EEG signals are obtained from the brain through invasive or
noninvasive methods (for example, electrodes). After, the signal is amplified and sampled.

2) Signal Pre-Processing: once the signals are acquired, it is necessary to clean them.

3) Signal Classification:
once the signals are cleaned, they will be processed and classified to find out which kind
of mental task the subject is performing.

4) Computer Interaction:
once the signals are classified, they will be used by an appropriate
algorithm for the development of a certain application.

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Figure 10:BCI common structure

In the case of a sensory input BCI, the function happens in reverse. A computer converts
a signal, such as one from a video camera, into the voltages necessary to trigger neurons. The
signals are sent to an implant in the proper area of the brain, and if everything works correctly,
the neurons fire and the subject receives a visual image corresponding to what the camera sees.

Achievement of greater speed and accuracy depends on improvements in:

• Signal acquisition:
Methods for increasing signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-noise
interference ratio (S/I)) as well as optimally combining spatial and temporal
information.

• Single trial analysis:

Overcoming noise and interference in order to avoid averaging and maximize bit rate.

• Co-learning:

Jointly optimizing combined man-machine system and taking advantage of feedback.

• Experimental paradigms for interpretable readable signals:

Mapping the task to the brain state of the user (or vice versa).

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• Understanding algorithms and models within the context of the neurobiology:

Building predictive models having neurophysiologic ally meaningful parameter and incorporating
physically and biologically meaningful priors.

5. LIMITATIONS

1. The brain is incredibly complex. To say that all thoughts or actions are the result of simple
electric signals in the brain is a gross understatement. There are about 100 billion neurons
in a human brain. Each neuron is constantly sending and receiving signals through a
complex web of connections. There are chemical processes involved as well, which EEGs
can't pick up on.

2. The signal is weak and prone to interference. EEGs measure tiny voltage potentials.
Something as simple as the blinking eyelids of the subject can generate much stronger
signals. Refinements in EEGs and implants will probably overcome this problem to some
extent in the future, but for now, reading brain signals is like listening to a bad phone
connection.
There's lots of static.

3. The equipment is less than portable. It's far better than it used to be -- early systems were
hardwired to massive mainframe computers. But some BCIs still require a wired
connection to the equipment, and those that are wireless require the subject to carry a
computer that can weigh around 10 pounds. Like all technology, this will surely become
lighter and more wireless in the future.

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6. APPLICATIONS OF BCI

6.1. Bioengineering applications

Brain-computer interfaces have a great potential for allowing patients with severe
neurological disabilities to return to interaction with society through communication and
prosthetic devices that control the environment as well as the ability to move within that
environment..

Figure 11
6.2. Human subject monitoring
Sleep disorders, neurological diseases, attention, monitoring, and/or overall
"mental state".

6.3. Neuroscience research

Real-time methods for correlating observable behavior with recorded neural signals.

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6.4. Man – Machine Interaction

Interface devices between human and computers, Machines.

6.5. Military Applications

The United States military has begun to explore possible applications of

BCIs beginning in 2008 to enhance troop performance as well as a possible development by

adversaries.

6.6. Gaming
Computer game have gone hands-off because of development in BCI.

Figure 12 :People playing ping-pong using BCI

6.7. Counter terrorism

A possible application is in Counter terrorism where a customs official can scan
photos of many hundreds of faces.

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7. PRESENT AND FUTURE

The practical use of BCI technology depends on an interdisciplinary cooperation between

neuroscientists, engineers, computer programmers, psychologists, and rehabilitation specialists,
in order to develop appropriate applications, to identify appropriate users groups, and to pay
careful attention to the needs and desires of individual users. The prospects for controlling
computers through neural signals are indeed difficult to judge because the field of research is still
in its infancy. Much progress has been made in taking advantage of the power of personal
computers to perform the operations needed to recognize patterns in biological impulses, but the
search for new and more useful signals still continues. If the advances of the 21st century match
the strides of the past few decades, direct neural communication between humans and computers
may ultimately mature and find widespread use. Perhaps newly purchased computers will one day
arrive withbiological signal sensors and thought-recognition software built in, just as keyboard
and mouse are commonly found on today's units.

CONCLUSION

BCI being the considered the ultimate development in the world of HCI there is lot
exceptions from it. Thus this field has been developed keeping in mind the extensive use of BCI
in various applications mainly enabling the disabled survive independently. The boundaries of
BCI applications are being extended rapidly and many experiments are being conducted in this
concern.

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REFERENCES

1..DIRECT BRAIN-COMPUTER COMMUNICATION WITH USER REWARDING

MECHANISM
Gary N. Garcia, Touradj Ebrahimi, Jean-Marc Vesin and Abel Villca.,pdf
Brain-Computer Interface (BCI)
Christoph Guger, Günter Edlinger, g.tec – Guger Technologies OEG
Herbersteinstr. 60, 8020 Graz, Austria, pdf

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