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Abstract Background A novel artefact removal algorithm is proposed for a self-paced hybrid brain-computer interface (BCI) system. This hybrid system combines a self-paced BCI with an eye-tracker to operate a virtual keyboard. To select a letter, the user must gaze at the target for at least a specific period of time (dwell time) and then activate the BCI by performing a mental task. Unfortunately, electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are often contaminated with artefacts. Artefacts change the quality of EEG signals and subsequently degrade the BCI’s performance. Methods To remove artefacts in EEG signals, the proposed algorithm uses the stationary wavelet transform combined with a new adaptive thresholding mechanism. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm and other artefact handling/removal methods, semi-simulated EEG signals (i.e., real EEG signals mixed with simulated artefacts) and real EEG signals obtained from seven participants are used. For real EEG signals, the hybrid BCI system’s performance is evaluated in an online-like manner, i.e., using the continuous data from the last session as in a real-time environment. Results With semi-simulated EEG signals, we show that the proposed algorithm achieves lower signal distortion in both time and frequency domains. With real EEG signals, we demonstrate that for dwell time of 0.0s, the number of false-positives/minute is 2 and the true positive rate (TPR) achieved by the proposed algorithm is 44.7%, which is more than 15.0% higher compared to other state-of-the-art artefact handling methods. As dwell time increases to 1.0s, the TPR increases to 73.1%. Conclusions The proposed artefact removal algorithm greatly improves the BCI’s performance. It also has the following advantages: a) it does not require additional electrooculogram/electromyogram channels, long data segments or a large number of EEG channels, b) it allows real-time processing, and c) it reduces signal distortion.

Abstract Background Recently, successful applications of the discrete wavelet transform have been reported in brain interface (BI) systems with one or two EEG channels. For a multi-channel BI system, however, the high dimensionality of the generated wavelet features space poses a challenging problem. Methods In this paper, a feature selection method that effectively reduces the dimensionality of the feature space of a multi-channel, self-paced BI system is proposed. The proposed method uses a two-stage feature selection scheme to select the most suitable movement-related potential features from the feature space. The first stage employs mutual information to filter out the least discriminant features, resulting in a reduced feature space. Then a genetic algorithm is applied to the reduced feature space to further reduce its dimensionality and select the best set of features. Results An offline analysis of the EEG signals (18 bipolar EEG channels) of four able-bodied subjects showed that the proposed method acquires low false positive rates at a reasonably high true positive rate. The results also show that features selected from different channels varied considerably from one subject to another. Conclusion The proposed hybrid method effectively reduces the high dimensionality of the feature space. The variability in features among subjects indicates that a user-customized BI system needs to be developed for individual users.

A fast approximate nearest neighbor search algorithm for the (binary) Hamming space is proposed. The proposed Error Weighted Hashing (EWH) algorithm is up to 20 times faster than the popular locality sensitive hashing (LSH) algorithm and works well even for large nearest neighbor distances where LSH fails. EWH significantly reduces the number of candidate nearest neighbors by weighing them based on the difference between their hash vectors. EWH can be used for multimedia retrieval and copy detection systems that are based on binary fingerprinting. On a fingerprint database with more than 1,000 videos, for a specific detection accuracy, we demonstrate that EWH is more than 10 times faster than LSH. For the same retrieval time, we show that EWH has a significantly better detection accuracy with a 15 times lower error rate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: A novel artefact removal algorithm is proposed for a self-paced hybrid brain-computer interface (BCI) system. This hybrid system combines a self-paced BCI with an eye-tracker to operate a virtual keyboard. To select a letter, the user must gaze at the target for at least a specific period of time (dwell time) and then activate the BCI by performing a mental task. Unfortunately, electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are often contaminated with artefacts. Artefacts change the quality of EEG signals and subsequently degrade the BCI's performance. Methods: To remove artefacts in EEG signals, the proposed algorithm uses the stationary wavelet transform combined with a new adaptive thresholding mechanism. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm and other artefact handling/removal methods, semi-simulated EEG signals (i.e., real EEG signals mixed with simulate artefacts) and real EEG signals obtained from seven participants are used. For real EEG signals, the hybrid BCI system's performance is evaluated in an online-like manner, i.e., using the continuous data from the last session as in a real-time environment. Results: With semi-simulated EEG signals, we show that the proposed algorithm achieves lower signal distortion in both time and frequency domains. With real EEG signals, we demonstrate that for dwell time of 0.0s, the number of false-positives/minute is 2 and the true positive rate (TPR) achieved by the proposed algorithm is 44.7%, which is more than 15.0% higher compared to other state-of-the-art artefact handling methods. As dwell time increases to 1.0s, the TPR increases to 73.1%. Conclusions: The proposed artefact removal algorithm greatly improves the BCI's performance. It also has the following advantages: a) it does not require additional electrooculogram/electromyogram channels, long data segments or a large number of EEG channels, b) it allows real-time processing, and c) it reduces signal distortion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fast approximate nearest neighbor search algorithm for the (binary) Hamming space is proposed. The proposed Error Weighted Hashing (EWH) algorithm is up to 20 times faster than the popular locality sensitive hashing (LSH) algorithm and works well even for large nearest neighbor distances where LSH fails. EWH significantly reduces the number of candidate nearest neighbors by weighing them based on the difference between their hash vectors. EWH can be used for multimedia retrieval and copy detection systems that are based on binary fingerprinting. On a fingerprint database with more than 1,000 videos, for a specific detection accuracy, we demonstrate that EWH is more than 10 times faster than LSH. For the same retrieval time, we show that EWH has a significantly better detection accuracy with a 15 times lower error rate.

As the characteristics of EEG signals change over time, updating the classifier of a brain computer interface, BCI, (over time) would improve the performance of the system. Developing an adaptive classifier for a self-paced BCI however is not easy because the user's intention (and therefore the true labels of the EEG signals) are not known during the operation of the system. For certain applications, it may be possible to predict the labels of some of the EEG segments using some information about the user's state (e.g., the error potentials or gaze information). This study proposes a method that adaptively updates the classifier of a self-paced BCI in a supervised or semi-supervised manner, using those EEG segments whose labels can be predicted. We employ the eye position information obtained from an eye-tracker to predict the EEG labels. This eye-tracker is also used along with a self-paced BCI to form a hybrid BCI system. The results obtained from seven individuals show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the non-adaptive and other unsupervised adaptive classifiers. It achieves a true positive rate of 49.7% and lowers the number of false positives significantly to only 2.2 FPs/minute.

In previous studies, we proposed a self-paced brain computer interface (SBCI) system that employed three neurological phenomena to identify intentional control (IC) commands from the no control (NC) states of EEG signals. We showed that this SBCI system achieved a good performance that was better than those of other EEG-based SBCI systems. In this paper, we carry out a new study to show that this system can be generalized. Specifically, we show that it can also achieve good performance when 1) a new type of movement is used (hand extension vs. the finger flexion this system was designed for), and 2) NC data are recorded in an engaging environment. A more reliable artifact monitoring system is also added to the system to rule out not only the effects of eye blinks but also the frontalis muscles when controlling the system. Using the data from five participants it is shown that the system obtains good performance compared to other EEG-based SBCI systems.