Brain-computer interface – Introduction

The idea of interfacing minds with machines has long captured the human imagination. Recent advances in neuroscience and engineering are making this a reality, opening the door to restoring and potentially augmenting human physical and mental capabilities. Medical applications such as cochlear implants for the deaf and deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease are becoming increasingly commonplace. Brain- computer interfaces (BCIs) (also known as brain- machine interfaces or BMIs) are now being explored in applications as diverse as security, lie detection, alertness monitoring, telepresence, gaming, education, art, and human augmentation.

Brain–computer interface (BCI) uses devices that enable their users to interact with computers and machines by using only their brain activity, which is measured and processed by the system.

Many BCI applications currently exist, allowing users to perform tasks such as writing sentences byselecting letters, moving a cursor on a computer screen, playing an electronic ping-pong game, and controlling an orthosis that provides a graspable hand.

BCIs are also used to study the human brain in relation to performance at work, transportation, and other everyday settings, which can provide important guidelines and constraints for theories of information presentation and task design. These research approaches also aim at applications that are not necessarily in the clinical field and forimpaired users. It is making BCI use possible for new potential user groups such as gamers and for applications in the domestic domain, human–computer interaction, robotics, and team performance.

Image Credit :- Brain-Computer Interfaces Handbook: Technological and Theoretical Advances book – by Chang S. Nam, Anton Nijholt, Fabien Lotte 

Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) are systems that translate a measure of a user’s brain activity into messages or commands for an interactive application. A typical example of a BCI is a system that enables a user to move a ball on a computer screen toward the left or toward the right, by imagining left- or right-hand movement, respectively. The very term BCI was coined in the 1970s, and since then, interest and research efforts in BCIs have grown tremendously, with possibly hundreds of laboratories around the world studying this topic.