Playing checkers with your mind: An interactive multiplayer hardware game platform for brain-computer interfaces

In this paper we describe a multiplayer brain-computer interface (BCI) based on the classic game of checkers using steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEPs). Previous research in BCI gaming focuses mainly on the production of software-based games using a computer screen - few hardware-based BCI games using a physical board have been developed. Hardware-based games can present a unique set of challenges when compared to software-based games. Depending on where the user is sitting, some stimuli might be farther away from the player, at a steeper viewing angle, conflated with competing stimuli, or occluded by physical barriers. In our game, we light squares on a checkerboard with flickering LEDs to elicit SSVEP responses in the subjects. When a subject attends to a particular square, the resulting SSVEPs are classified and a robot arm moves the selected piece. In a set of pilot experiments we investigated the ability of two subjects to use the SSVEP-based hardware game platform, and assessed how interstimulus distance, interstimulus angle, distance between target stimulus and subject, number of competing stimuli, and visual occlusions of the stimuli influence classification accuracy.