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Can Dry EEG Sensors Improve the Usability of SMR, P300 and SSVEP Based BCIs?

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Towards Practical Brain-Computer Interfaces

Part of the book series: Biological and Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering ((BIOMEDICAL))

Abstract

A BCI enables a new communication channel that bypasses the standard neural pathways and output channels and in order to control an external device. BCI technology has been developed to enable lost body or communication functions in handicapped persons. Recently BCI systems are used for communication purposes, to control robotic devices to control games or for rehabilitation. This means BCI systems are not only built for user groups with special needs but also for healthy people. A limiting factor in the wide-spread application is the usage of abrasive gel and conductive paste to mount EEG electrodes. Therefore many research groups are now working on the practical usability of dry electrodes to completely avoid the usage of electrode gel. In this chapter results for endogenous and exogenous BCI approaches are presented and discussed based on the g.SAHARA dry electrode sensor concept. Raw EEG data, power spectra, the time course of evoked potentials, ERD/ERS values and BCI accuracy are compared for three BCI setups based on P300, SMR and SSVEP BCIs. Although the focus in this study was set to P300 evoked potentials it could be demonstrated that the used electrode concept works well for BCI based on P300, SMR and SSVEP BCI.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. g.tec medical engineering GmbH, Sierningstraße 14, A-4521, Schiedlberg, Austria

    Günter Edlinger

  2. Guger Technologies OG, Herbersteinstraße 60, 8020, Graz, Austria

    Christoph Guger

Authors
  1. Günter Edlinger
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  2. Christoph Guger
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Correspondence to Günter Edlinger .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Baltimore Drive 5700Apt 167, La Mesa, 91942, California, USA

    Brendan Z. Allison

  2. Starlab Neuroscience Research, Teodor Roviralta 45, Barcelona, 08022, Spain

    Stephen Dunne

  3. , School of Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL STI-CNBI, ELB 141, Station 11, Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland

    Robert Leeb

  4. , School of Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL STI-CNBI, ELB 138. Station 11, Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland

    José Del R. Millán

  5. , Faculty EEMCS, University of Twente, Enschede, 7500, Netherlands

    Anton Nijholt

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Edlinger, G., Guger, C. (2012). Can Dry EEG Sensors Improve the Usability of SMR, P300 and SSVEP Based BCIs?. In: Allison, B., Dunne, S., Leeb, R., Del R. Millán, J., Nijholt, A. (eds) Towards Practical Brain-Computer Interfaces. Biological and Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29746-5_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29746-5_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-29745-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-29746-5

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