Development And Evaluation of WEEG: A Wearable 8-Channel System for Brain Computer Interfaces

Abstract

Research-grade Electroencephalogram (EEG) instruments offer the brain’s electrical activity recording with high accuracy and a wide range of functionalities. Due to rigorous component requirements, these devices are usually expensive and elaborate. Recent advancements in electronic enable smaller designs to achieve comparable measurement results with similar functions such as impedance measurement. In this paper, we present the design of WEEG –A Wearable 8-channel System EEG recording device with integrated hardware and software interface. The circuit board which is smaller than a credit card size contains a power management system, an ADS1299 Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) to capture brainwaves and a microcontroller to handle a part of digital processing tasks. It communicates with a host computer via Bluetooth/Serial. Extensive evaluations were deployed to evaluate the performance of WEEG. We compared the signal quality of WEEG to that of the Biosemi Active Two -a conventional high-quality EEG recording system. Results came out comparable, indicating a high accurate recording of the proposed system. Also, Steady State Visually Evoked Potential (SSVEP) based game was devised. The high performance of users in the game suggests usage of our device in a wider range of Brain Computer Interface applications.