Actual and Imagined Movement in BCI Gaming

Most research on Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) focuses\ud on developing ways of expression for disabled people who are\ud not able to communicate through other means. Recently it has been\ud shown that BCI can also be used in games to give users a richer experience\ud and new ways to interact with a computer or game console.\ud This paper describes research conducted to find out what the differences\ud are between using actual and imagined movement as modalities\ud in a BCI game. Results show that there are significant differences\ud in user experience and that actual movement is a more robust way of\ud communicating through a BCI

User Experience Evaluation in BCI: Filling the Gap

Brain-computer interface (BCI) systems can improve the user experience (UX) when used in entertainment technologies. Improved UX can enhance user acceptance, improve quality of life and also increase the system performance of a BCI system. Therefore, the evaluation of UX is essential in BCI research. However, BCI systems are generally evaluated according to the system aspect only so there is no methodology to evaluate UX in BCI systems. This paper gives an overview of such methods from the human-computer interaction field and discusses their possible uses in BCI research

Framework for Electroencephalography-based Evaluation of User Experience

Measuring brain activity with electroencephalography (EEG) is mature enough to assess mental states. Combined with existing methods, such tool can be used to strengthen the understanding of user experience. We contribute a set of methods to estimate continuously the user's mental workload, attention and recognition of interaction errors during different interaction tasks. We validate these measures on a controlled virtual environment and show how they can be used to compare different interaction techniques or devices, by comparing here a keyboard and a touch-based interface. Thanks to such a framework, EEG becomes a promising method to improve the overall usability of complex computer systems.Comment: in ACM. CHI '16 - SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing System, May 2016, San Jose, United State

Bacteria Hunt: Evaluating multi-paradigm BCI interaction

The multimodal, multi-paradigm brain-computer interfacing (BCI) game Bacteria Hunt was used to evaluate two aspects of BCI interaction in a gaming context. One goal was to examine the effect of feedback on the ability of the user to manipulate his mental state of relaxation. This was done by having one condition in which the subject played the game with real feedback, and another with sham feedback. The feedback did not seem to affect the game experience (such as sense of control and tension) or the objective indicators of relaxation, alpha activity and heart rate. The results are discussed with regard to clinical neurofeedback studies. The second goal was to look into possible interactions between the two BCI paradigms used in the game: steady-state visually-evoked potentials (SSVEP) as an indicator of concentration, and alpha activity as a measure of relaxation. SSVEP stimulation activates the cortex and can thus block the alpha rhythm. Despite this effect, subjects were able to keep their alpha power up, in compliance with the instructed relaxation task. In addition to the main goals, a new SSVEP detection algorithm was developed and evaluated

Player–video game interaction: A systematic review of current concepts

International audienceVideo game design requires a user-centered approach to ensure that the experience enjoyed by players is as good as possible. However, the nature of player-video game interactions has not as yet been clearly defined in the scientific literature. The purpose of the present study was to provide a systematic review of empirical evidences of the current concepts of player-video game interactions in entertainment situations. A total of 72 articles published in scientific journals that deal with human-computer interaction met the criteria for inclusion in the present review. Major findings of these articles were presented in a narrative synthesis. Results showed that player-video game interactions could be defined with multiple concepts that are closely linked and intertwined. These concepts concern player aspects of player-video game interactions, namely engagement and enjoyment, and video game aspects, namely information input/output techniques, game contents and multiplayer games. Global approaches, such as playability, also exist to qualify player-video game interactions. Limitations of these findings are discussed to help researchers to plan future advances of the field and provide supplementary effort to better know the role of less-studied aspects. Practical implications are also discussed to help game designers to optimize the design of player-video game interactions

Is there Joy Beyond the Joystick?: Immersive Potential of Brain-Computer Interfaces

Immersion, the state of being fully engaged in one\u27s current operation, is a descriptor commonly used to appraise user experience in computer games and software applications. As the use of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) begins to expand into the consumer sphere, questions arise concerning the ability of BCIs to modulate user immersion. This study employed a computer game to examine the effect of a consumer-grade BCI (the Emotiv EPOC) on immersion. In doing so, this study also explored the relationship between BCI usability and immersion levels. An experiment with twenty-seven participants showed that users were significantly more immersed when controlling the testing game with a BCI in comparison to traditional control methods. The results suggest that increased immersion levels may be caused by the challenging nature of BCI control rather than the BCI\u27s ability to directly translate user intent

Classification of Affective Data to Evaluate the Level Design in a Role-Playing Videogame

This paper presents a novel approach to evaluate game level design strategies, applied to role playing games. Following a set of well defined guidelines, two game levels were designed for Neverwinter Nights 2 to manipulate particular emotions like boredom or flow, and tested by 13 subjects wearing a brain computer interface helmet. A set of features was extracted from the affective data logs and used to classify different parts of the gaming sessions, to verify the correspondence of the original level aims and the effective results on people emotions. The very interesting correlations observed, suggest that the technique is extensible to other similar evaluation tasks

Immersive Composition for Sensory Rehabilitation: 3D Visualisation, Surround Sound, and Synthesised Music to Provoke Catharsis and Healing

There is a wide range of sensory therapies using sound, music and visual stimuli. Some focus on soothing or distracting stimuli such as natural sounds or classical music as analgesic, while other approaches emphasize the active performance of producing music as therapy. This paper proposes an immersive multi-sensory Exposure Therapy for people suffering from anxiety disorders, based on a rich, detailed surround-soundscape. This soundscape is composed to include the users’ own idiosyncratic anxiety triggers as a form of habituation, and to provoke psychological catharsis, as a non-verbal, visceral and enveloping exposure. To accurately pinpoint the most effective sounds and to optimally compose the soundscape we will monitor the participants’ physiological responses such as electroencephalography, respiration, electromyography, and heart rate during exposure. We hypothesize that such physiologically optimized sensory landscapes will aid the development of future immersive therapies for various psychological conditions, Sound is a major trigger of anxiety, and auditory hypersensitivity is an extremely problematic symptom. Exposure to stress-inducing sounds can free anxiety sufferers from entrenched avoidance behaviors, teaching physiological coping strategies and encouraging resolution of the psychological issues agitated by the sound