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Articles

Brain-computer interfaces are getting more user-friendly

Circular "buttons" with a cross in the middle and avoiding the colour blue can improve the performance of brain-computer interface that allows persons with complete paralysis control devices, found the Warsaw School of Social Psychology students.

Brain-computer interface is a device that allows to control a computer using only brain activity - without a keyboard or mouse. This allows a person suffering from the closure syndrome (a condition where the patient is completely paralysed but fully conscious and aware) to communicate with the outside world.

Neurocognitivistics students at the Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities (SWPS), Zofia Radzikowska, Anna Duszyk and Maria Bierzyńska, together with researchers from the Department of Biomedical Physics of the University of Warsaw, conducted research on various interface settings, trying to determine, which solutions would be most user-friendly. Research was funded by the Foundation for Polish Science.

"The study interface is based on a mechanism, in which the test participant looks at flashing stimuli and focuses attention on only one of them. The frequency with which the selected field flashes, appears in the visual cortex of the brain. The signal is recorded from the scalp using EEG. With the appropriate analysis, the mechanism determines the field, on which the user concentrates, and runs the function assigned to the field - for example, writing a letter or turning on the light "- explained SWPS spokeswoman Natalia Osica.

"Our goal was to determine how the flashing fields should look to make the interface so as efficient and user-friendly as possible. It turned out that large and round fields bring best results. According to the preferences of respondents, they should also contain a fixation point, a small cross, on which the user can focus. During the experiment we have also demonstrated that the least effective are blue colour stimuli, which lower the interface efficiency"- explained Zofia Radzikowska, fifth-year neurocognitivistics at SWPS and project leader.

Radzikowska emphasised that the results would not only allow to improve the operation of brain-computer interface by increasing its reaction speed, but also reduce the likelihood of errors. Furthermore, they will allow to customize its appearance and settings to user requirements. Above all, however, the results will enable manufacturers to program the default settings that have produced the best results in the majority of study participants.

According to the researcher, if a user finds that the default settings fail to bring the expected results or are tiring, he or she will be able to change them. The user will not be able to program settings, which would cause the interface to cease to function efficiently.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

last modification: 2011-11-29

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Brain-computer interfaces are getting more user-friendly

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