RSVP Keyboard: An EEG Based Typing Interface.

[locked-in syndrome]

Humans need communication . The desire to communicate remains one of the primary issues for people with locked-in syndrome (LIS ). While many assistive and augmentative communication systems that use various physiological signals are available commercially , the need is not satisfactorily met . Brain interfaces , in particular , those that utilize event related potentials (ERP ) in electroencephalography (EEG ) to detect the intent of a person noninvasively , are emerging as a promising communication interface to meet this need where existing options are insufficient . Existing brain interfaces for typing use many repetitions of the visual stimuli in order to increase accuracy at the cost of speed . However , speed is also crucial and is an integral portion of peer -to -peer communication ; a message that is not delivered timely often looses its importance . Consequently , we utilize rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP ) in conjunction with language models in order to assist letter selection during the brain -typing process with the final goal of developing a system that achieves high accuracy and speed simultaneously . This paper presents initial results from the RSVP Keyboard system that is under development . These initial results on healthy and locked-in subjects show that single -trial or few-trial accurate letter selection may be possible with the RSVP Keyboard paradigm .