You no longer need to command your computer by jabbing away at the keyboard, your thoughts are enough. To assist paraplegic patients, or help treat neurological problems, a French institute has developed a brain-computer interface.
You no longer need to command your computer by jabbing away at the keyboard, your thoughts are enough. To assist paraplegic patients, or help treat neurological problems, a French institute has developed a brain-computer interface.
Through OpenViBE, the new software platform, users can give commands to the computer without using their hands. The project is also being developed for making videogame software.
Renard Yann, the researcher from French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA), who is working on the project, was one of the guest lecturers at Techfest 2011, an annual event at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B).
Students and faculty of the computer science and engineering departments attended the lecture on Friday. Many international exhibits were displayed at the event, but the brain-computer interface was the one which generated the most interest.
According to Yann, OpenViBE can be used as a tool for researchers, clinicians and videogame developers. “With this platform, several other user-friendly products can be developed. We are still improving on the accuracy levels and are trying to make it available at an affordable price. In the current format, it is very expensive and thus cannot be used widely,” said Yann, who claimed that the research team is releasing a new version of OpenViBE every three months.
The software measures brain activity using a data-capture machine in the form of a cap, which is fitted with electrodes linked to a device that allows the brain to communicate with the computer. In the system, called the P300 speller, rows and columns of letters are highlighted on the screen, The person is asked to focus his attention on a letter he wants to spell out. When the row or column contains the chosen letter, a particular brain response is generated, which is detected and interpreted by the machine.
The live demo of the software fascinated the audience attending the lecture by INRIA representatives.
“They also open up possibilities to treat certain neurological problems (attention disorders and motor recovery after a stroke, for example) through rehabilitation processes such as neuro-feedback which consists of asking a person to self-regulate his or her brain activity which is measured using various electro physiological components,” said professor Sharat Chandran from the IIT-Bombay computer science and engineering department.
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