An Effective Brain-Computer Interface System Based on the Optimal Timeframe Selection of Brain Signals

Background: Brain responds in a short timeframe (with certain delay) after the request for doing a motor imagery task and therefore it is most likely that the individual not focus continuously on the task at entire interval of data acquisition time or even think about other things in a very short time slice. In this paper, an effective brain-computer interface system is presented based on the optimal timeframe selection of brain signals.Methods: To prove the stated claim, various timeframes with different durations and delays selected based on a specific rule from EEG signals recorded during right/left hand motor imagery task and subsequently, feature extraction and classification are done.Results: Implementation results on the two well-known datasets termed Graz 2003 and Graz 2005; shows that the smallest systematically created timeframe of data acquisition interval have had the best results of classification. Using this smallest timeframe, the classification accuracy increased up to 91.43% for Graz 2003 and 88.96, 83.64 and 84.86 percent for O3, S4 and X11 subjects of Graz 2005 database respectively.Conclusion: Removing the additional information in which the individual does not focus on the motor imagery task and utilizing the most distinguishing timeframe of EEG signals that correctly interpret individual intentions improves the BCI system performance

An Enhanced Probabilistic LDA for Multi-Class Brain Computer Interface

There is a growing interest in the study of signal processing and machine learning methods, which may make the brain computer interface (BCI) a new communication channel. A variety of classification methods have been utilized to convert the brain information into control commands. However, most of the methods only produce uncalibrated values and uncertain results.In this study, we presented a probabilistic method "enhanced BLDA" (EBLDA) for multi-class motor imagery BCI, which utilized Bayesian linear discriminant analysis (BLDA) with probabilistic output to improve the classification performance. EBLDA builds a new classifier that enlarges training dataset by adding test samples with high probability. EBLDA is based on the hypothesis that unlabeled samples with high probability provide valuable information to enhance learning process and generate a classifier with refined decision boundaries. To investigate the performance of EBLDA, we first used carefully designed simulated datasets to study how EBLDA works. Then, we adopted a real BCI dataset for further evaluation. The current study shows that: 1) Probabilistic information can improve the performance of BCI for subjects with high kappa coefficient; 2) With supplementary training samples from the test samples of high probability, EBLDA is significantly better than BLDA in classification, especially for small training datasets, in which EBLDA can obtain a refined decision boundary by a shift of BLDA decision boundary with the support of the information from test samples.The proposed EBLDA could potentially reduce training effort. Therefore, it is valuable for us to realize an effective online BCI system, especially for multi-class BCI systems

Applying evolution strategies to preprocessing EEG signals for brain–computer interfaces

An appropriate preprocessing of EEG signals is crucial to get high classification accuracy for Brain–Computer Interfaces (BCI). The raw EEG data are continuous signals in the time-domain that can be transformed by means of filters. Among them, spatial filters and selecting the most appropriate frequency-bands in the frequency domain are known to improve classification accuracy. However, because of the high variability among users, the filters must be properly adjusted to every user’s data before competitive results can be obtained. In this paper we propose to use the Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (CMA-ES) for automatically tuning the filters. Spatial and frequency-selection filters are evolved to minimize both classification error and the number of frequency bands used. This evolutionary approach to filter optimization has been tested on data for different users from the BCI-III competition. The evolved filters provide higher accuracy than approaches used in the competition. Results are also consistent across different runs of CMA-ES.This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science under Contract TIN2008-06491-C04-03 (MSTAR project) and TIN2011-28336 (MOVES project).Publicad

Identification of ERD using Fuzzy Inference Systems for Brain-Computer Interface

A Brain-Computer Interface uses measurements of scalp electric potential (electroencephalography - EEG) reflecting brain activity, to communicate with external devices. Recent developments in electronics and computer sciences have enabled applications that may help users with disabilities and also to develop new types of Human Machine Interfaces. By producing modifications in their brain potential activity, the users can perform control of different devices. In order to perform actions, this EEG signals must be processed with proper algorithms. Our approach is based on a fuzzy inference system used to produce sharp control states from noisy EEG data

Comparison of Different Features and Classifiers for Driver Fatigue Detection Based on a Single EEG Channel

Driver fatigue has become an important factor to traffic accidents worldwide, and effective detection of driver fatigue has major significance for public health. The purpose method employs entropy measures for feature extraction from a single electroencephalogram (EEG) channel. Four types of entropies measures, sample entropy (SE), fuzzy entropy (FE), approximate entropy (AE), and spectral entropy (PE), were deployed for the analysis of original EEG signal and compared by ten state-of-theart classifiers. Results indicate that optimal performance of single channel is achieved using a combination of channel CP4, feature FE, and classifier Random Forest (RF). The highest accuracy can be up to 96.6%, which has been able to meet the needs of real applications. The best combination of channel + features + classifier is subject-specific. In this work, the accuracy of FE as the feature is far greater than the Acc of other features. The accuracy using classifier RF is the best, while that of classifier SVM with linear kernel is the worst. The impact of channel selection on the Acc is larger. The performance of various channels is very different

Hypovigilance Detection for UCAV Operators Based on a Hidden Markov Model

With the advance of military technology, the number of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) has rapidly increased. However, it has been reported that the accident rate of UCAVs is much higher than that of manned combat aerial vehicles. One of the main reasons for the high accident rate of UCAVs is the hypovigilance problem which refers to the decrease in vigilance levels of UCAV operators while maneuvering. In this paper, we propose hypovigilance detection models for UCAV operators based on EEG signal to minimize the number of occurrences of hypovigilance. To enable detection, we have applied hidden Markov models (HMMs), two of which are used to indicate the operators' dual states, normal vigilance and hypovigilance, and, for each operator, the HMMs are trained as a detection model. To evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of the proposed models, we conducted two experiments on the real-world data obtained by using EEG-signal acquisition devices, and they yielded satisfactory results. By utilizing the proposed detection models, the problem of hypovigilance of UCAV operators and the problem of high accident rate of UCAVs can be addressed

Hypovigilance Detection for UCAV Operators Based on a Hidden Markov Model

With the advance of military technology, the number of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) has rapidly increased. However, it has been reported that the accident rate of UCAVs is much higher than that of manned combat aerial vehicles. One of the main reasons for the high accident rate of UCAVs is the hypovigilance problem which refers to the decrease in vigilance levels of UCAV operators while maneuvering. In this paper, we propose hypovigilance detection models for UCAV operators based on EEG signal to minimize the number of occurrences of hypovigilance. To enable detection, we have applied hidden Markov models (HMMs), two of which are used to indicate the operators’ dual states, normal vigilance and hypovigilance, and, for each operator, the HMMs are trained as a detection model. To evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of the proposed models, we conducted two experiments on the real-world data obtained by using EEG-signal acquisition devices, and they yielded satisfactory results. By utilizing the proposed detection models, the problem of hypovigilance of UCAV operators and the problem of high accident rate of UCAVs can be addressed

A Study of recent classification algorithms and a novel approach for biosignal data classification

Analyzing and understanding human biosignals have been important research areas that have many practical applications in everyday life. For example, Brain Computer Interface is a research area that studies the connection between the human brain and external systems by processing and learning the brain signals called Electroencephalography (EEG) signals. Similarly, various assistive robotics applications are being developed to interpret eye or muscle signals in humans in order to provide control inputs for external devices. The efficiency for all of these applications depends heavily on being able to process and classify human biosignals. Therefore many techniques from Signal Processing and Machine Learning fields are applied in order to understand human biosignals better and increase the efficiency and success of these applications. This thesis proposes a new classifier for biosignal data classification utilizing Particle Swarm Optimization Clustering and Radial Basis Function Networks (RBFN). The performance of the proposed classifier together with several variations in the technique is analyzed by utilizing comparisons with the state of the art classifiers such as Fuzzy Functions Support Vector Machines (FFSVM), Improved Fuzzy Functions Support Vector Machines (IFFSVM). These classifiers are implemented on the classification of same biological signals in order to evaluate the proposed technique. Several clustering algorithms, which are used in these classifiers, such as K-means, Fuzzy c-means, and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), are studied and compared with each other based on clustering abilities. The effects of the analyzed clustering algorithms in the performance of Radial Basis Functions Networks classifier are investigated. Strengths and weaknesses are analyzed on various standard and EEG datasets. Results show that the proposed classifier that combines PSO clustering with RBFN classifier can reach or exceed the performance of these state of the art classifiers. Finally, the proposed classification technique is applied to a real-time system application where a mobile robot is controlled based on person\u27s EEG signal

Classifying EEG for brain computer interfaces using Gaussian processes

Classifying electroencephalography (EEG) signals is an important step for proceeding EEG-based brain computer interfaces (BCI). Currently, kernel based methods such as the support vector machine (SVM) are considered the state-of-the-art methods for this problem. In this paper, we apply Gaussian process (GP) classification to binary discrimination of motor imagery EEG data. Compared with the SVM, GP based methods naturally provide probability outputs for identifying a trusted prediction which can be used for post-processing in a BCI. Experimental results show that the classification methods based on a GP perform similarly to kernel logistic regression and probabilistic SVM in terms of predictive likelihood, but outperform SVM and K-nearest neighbor (KNN) in terms of 0-1 loss class prediction error. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved