SSVEP response on Oculus Rift

Brain computer interfaces (BCIs) which exploit steady state visually evoked potential (SSVEP) have advanced by using various display devices. One of the most recent type of display devices is virtual reality head-mounted display (VRHMD). In this paper, we investigate SSVEP BCI via VRHMD. In order to investigate the system, we found feasible stimulation frequencies by testing six stimulation frequencies which can be generated by using Oculus Rift, one of off-the-shelf VRHMD devices. In order to evaluate SSVEP detection performance dependent on stimulation frequencies, we employed canonical correlation analysis and minimum energy combination methods. According to our experimental results, the system using only low stimulation frequencies, less than 10 Hz, showed higher SSVEP detection performance than those using low and high stimulation frequencies together. The results prove that VRHMDs can be a reliable display device for a SSVEP BCI, when the stimulation frequencies are less than 10 Hz.