Multi-command Tactile Brain Computer Interface: A Feasibility Study
This is an incremental feasibility study for BCI-naive users, potentially aiding in interactive applications such as robotic operations.
The study investigated whether tactile stimuli on fingertips could enable a brain-computer interface for applications like robotic vehicle control, achieving validation through real-time experiments with moderate-speed stimuli and reporting information-transfer rates.
The study presented explores the extent to which tactile stimuli delivered to the ten digits of a BCI-naive subject can serve as a platform for a brain computer interface (BCI) that could be used in an interactive application such as robotic vehicle operation. The ten fingertips are used to evoke somatosensory brain responses, thus defining a tactile brain computer interface (tBCI). Experimental results on subjects performing online (real-time) tBCI, using stimuli with a moderately fast inter-stimulus-interval (ISI), provide a validation of the tBCI prototype, while the feasibility of the concept is illuminated through information-transfer rates obtained through the case study.