Brain-computer interface (BCI) systems are a fast developing technology which involves communication systems–hardware and software–that are enabled to control external devices through brain activity. The most critical aspect of BCI technology applications is to offer assistance to disabled people especially paralytic patients. However, now BCI technologies are being utilized in nonmedical applications like gaming and device control for commercial usage apart from medical applications.
The research community originally developed BCIs with biomedical applications which would be resulting in a generation of assistive devices. The expert scientists have made it possible to restore the movement capability for physically challenged or locked-in users and have replaced misplaced motor functionality. The optimistic future which has been forecasted for BCI has made the research community confident enough to study the association of BCI in the life of non-paralyzed humans via medical applications.
Usage in Non-medical Applications:
Nevertheless, the extent of research has been promoted the capabilities of BCI to be used in the non-medical applications. More current studies have zeroed in on ordinary individuals by exploring the use of BCIs as a fresh approach by inputting device and investigating the generation of hands-free applications. The method of BCI interfaces for healthy and ordinarily functional humans has been subjected to some doubts. What the issue of less information transfer rate (ITR) of BCIs and its consequence on reducing the command’s user can bestow has been addressed as one of those issues. The researchers have asserted that this problem confines BCI utilization for locked-in persons as it is not able to keep up with the ordinary or day-to-day communication ways or even common human-computer interfaces.
Usage for Normal Humans:
With the research in full swing, some BCI researches have declared there are numerous BCI advantages for non-disabled users which can be utilized with the help of other technologies. BCI can be useful particularly for safety applications or applications where it is immediately complicated to be in motion and the reaction time is critical. Besides, BCI can also be used to enhance the accurateness of the HCI systems, resulting in BCI contribution in various fields such as healthcare, educational, media, entertainment, and smart transportation. Despite its likely success, BCI needs to triumph over technical complicatedness as well as challenges posed by user acceptance to deal with such newly revealed technology.
Communication and Control:
BCI systems can assemble a communication bridge between the human brain and the outside world eradicating the need for archetypal information delivery methods. BCI can manage the sending of messages from human minds and to decipher their unspoken thoughts. Thus BCI can help specially-abled people to tell and write down their opinions and ideas through an assortment of methods such as in semantic categorization, spelling applications or silent speech communication.
User State Monitoring:
Initially, BCI applications have been used on disabled users who have mobility or speech issues and are unable to communicate with others. BCI applications aimed to offer a substitute communication channel for those users. However, with time BCI was being utilized in the world of healthy people as well. It works as a physiological measuring tool that repossesses and uses knowledge about an individual’s emotional, cognitive or effectiveness state. The target of brain signals exploitation has been comprehensive beyond controlling some object or providing a replacement for specific functions, in what is called passive BCI.
Today, there are instances where the researchers express their limitations facing the user acceptance of BCI technology utilization. They embrace the issues related to the training process compulsory for classes’ prejudice. Information transfer rate (ITR) is one of the system evaluation metrics that coalesces both performance and acceptance aspects.
