Development of a Low-Cost FPGA-Based SSVEP BCI Multimedia Control System

This paper proposes a low-cost field-programmable gate-array (FPGA)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) multimedia control system, different from the BCI system, which uses bulky and expensive electroencephalography (EEG) measurement equipment, personal computer, and commercial real-time signal-processing software. The proposed system combines a customized stimulation panel, a brainwave-acquisition circuit, and an FPGA-based real-time signal processor and allows users to use their brainwave to communicate with or control multimedia devices by themselves. This study also designs a light-emitting diode stimulation panel instead of cathode ray tube or liquid-crystal display used in existing studies, to induce a stronger steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP), a kind of EEG, used as the input signal of the proposed BCI system. Implementing a prototype of the SSVEP-based BCI multimedia control system verifies the effectiveness of the proposed system. Experimental results show that the subjects´ SSVEP can successfully control the multimedia device through the proposed BCI system with high identification accuracy.