Application to robot control using brain function measurement by near-infrared spectroscopy

In recent years, study of brain computer interface (BCI) is conducted actively and many researches of implementation using electro encephalic gram (EEG) are reported. On the other hand, some realization of BCI based on near- infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) also had been reported. Since a measurement instrument for NIRS is comparatively small- scale and it can perform noninvasive measurements, NIRS is expected as one of useful tool in order to realize versatile BCIs. In this paper, the estimation method is shown the possibility of applications to the ON/OFF control of BCI by NIRS. We measured regional cerebral blood flow during tapping movement of the right hand by NIRS and we propose a method to quantitatively estimate start and end timing of movement by using a neural network.