Wearable brain-computer interface transforms intent into action

A new wearable brain-computer interface (BMI) system can improve the quality of life of patients with movement disorders or paralysis, even those with atresia syndrome-when a person is fully awake but unable to move or communicate
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The Woon-Hong Yeo Laboratory of Georgia Institute of Technology leads a multi-institutional international research team that combines wireless soft scalp electronic technology and virtual reality technology into the BMI system, which allows users to imagine an action and control the wheelchair wirelessly Or robotic arm
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This team includes researchers from the University of Kent in the UK and Yonsei University in South Korea, who described the new motion image-based BMI system in this month's "Advanced Science" magazine
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"Compared with the existing system, the main advantage of this system for users is that it is soft and comfortable, and it does not have any wires," said Yang, associate professor of the George W.
Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
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The BMI system is a rehabilitation technology that can analyze a person's brain signals and convert neural activities into commands and intentions into actions
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These devices usually rely heavily on gels and pastes to help maintain skin contact, require a long time to set up, and are usually inconvenient and uncomfortable to use
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The portable EEG system designed by Yeo integrates micro-needle electrodes and soft wireless circuits to provide better signal acquisition
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The new system has been tested on four subjects, but it has not been studied on disabled people
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"This is only the first demonstration, but we are excited by what we have seen," said Yeo, who is the director of the Human-Machine Interface and Engineering Center of Georgia Institute of Technology under the Institute of Electronics and Nanotechnology and the Petit Bioengineering and Biological Engineering Center.
Member of the Institute of Science
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New paradigm

Yang's team initially introduced a soft, wearable brain-computer interface for EEG in a study published in Nature Machine Intelligence in 2019
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"This new brain-computer interface uses a completely different model, including imagined movement, such as grasping something with any hand, which saves the subject from seeing too much stimulation," a doctoral student in Dr.
Yang's laboratory Mahmoud said
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In the 2021 study, users demonstrated precise control over virtual reality exercises through their minds—their motor imaginations
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Yeo said: "It turns out that virtual cues are very useful
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Mahmood said that future work on the system will focus on optimizing electrode placement and more advanced integration of stimulus-based EEG, using what they have learned from the past two studies

Musa Mahmood, et al.