A tactile Brain-Computer Interface for severely disabled patients

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) for communication purposes are usually controlled via a P300 paradigm. There, a high number of different classes is presented to the user, thus enhancing the information transfer rate in comparison to e.g. motor imagery based BCIs. During the last years several P300 speller, based on visual stimulation, were developed. For people with visual impairments another stimulation strategy needs to be used. In this publication a vibrotactile P300 based BCI is introduced. Two different approaches were tested: a first approach using three stimulators and a second one that utilizes eight stimulators for emitting the stimuli. The two paradigms were tested on 18 users: A group of twelve healthy users and a second group comprising of six patients suffering Locked-In Syndrome (LIS). The control accuracy was calculated for both groups, proving the feasibility of the device, not only for healthy people but also in severely disabled patients.