TCTS Lab, University of Mons, 20, Place du Parc, Mons 7000, Belgium.
Biomed Eng Online. 2013 Jun 25;12:56. doi: 10.1186/1475-925X-12-56.
For two decades, EEG-based Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems have been widely studied in research labs. Now, researchers want to consider out-of-the-lab applications and make this technology available to everybody. However, medical-grade EEG recording devices are still much too expensive for end-users, especially disabled people. Therefore, several low-cost alternatives have appeared on the market. The Emotiv Epoc headset is one of them. Although some previous work showed this device could suit the customer's needs in terms of performance, no quantitative classification-based assessments compared to a medical system are available.
This paper aims at statistically comparing a medical-grade system, the ANT device, and the Emotiv Epoc headset by determining their respective performances in a P300 BCI using the same electrodes. On top of that, a review of previous Emotiv studies and a discussion on practical considerations regarding both systems are proposed. Nine healthy subjects participated in this experiment during which the ANT and the Emotiv systems are used in two different conditions: sitting on a chair and walking on a treadmill at constant speed.
The Emotiv headset performs significantly worse than the medical device; observed effect sizes vary from medium to large. The Emotiv headset has higher relative operational and maintenance costs than its medical-grade competitor.
Although this low-cost headset is able to record EEG data in a satisfying manner, it should only be chosen for non critical applications such as games, communication systems, etc. For rehabilitation or prosthesis control, this lack of reliability may lead to serious consequences. For research purposes, the medical system should be chosen except if a lot of trials are available or when the Signal-to-Noise Ratio is high. This also suggests that the design of a specific low-cost EEG recording system for critical applications and research is still required.
二十年来，基于脑电图的脑机接口（BCI）系统在研究实验室中得到了广泛的研究。现在，研究人员希望考虑实验室外的应用，并将这项技术提供给所有人。然而，对于最终用户来说，医疗级别的脑电图记录设备仍然过于昂贵，尤其是对于残疾人来说。因此，市场上出现了一些低成本的替代品。Emotiv Epoc 耳机就是其中之一。尽管之前的一些工作表明，该设备在性能方面可以满足客户的需求，但与医疗系统相比，没有基于定量分类的评估。
本文旨在通过使用相同的电极，在 P300 BCI 中统计比较医疗级系统 ANT 设备和 Emotiv Epoc 耳机，以确定它们各自的性能。此外，还对以前的 Emotiv 研究进行了回顾，并对这两个系统的实际考虑因素进行了讨论。九名健康受试者参与了这项实验，其中使用了 ANT 和 Emotiv 系统在两种不同的条件下：坐在椅子上和在跑步机上以恒定速度行走。
Emotiv 耳机的性能明显不如医疗设备；观察到的效果大小从中等到较大不等。Emotiv 耳机的运营和维护成本相对较高，高于其医疗级竞争对手。
尽管这款低成本耳机能够以令人满意的方式记录脑电图数据，但它只应选择用于非关键应用，如游戏、通信系统等。对于康复或假肢控制，这种可靠性的缺乏可能会导致严重后果。出于研究目的，应选择医疗系统，除非有大量试验或信噪比高。这也表明，仍然需要为关键应用和研究设计特定的低成本脑电图记录系统。
