A hybrid Brain-Computer Interface for improving the usability of a smart home control

A Brain-computer interface (BCI) provides a new communication channel for a human without using any muscle activities. Within this study we propose hybrid BCI based on the P300 evoked potential and steady-state visually evoked potential (SSVEP) approach to control a smart home environment in an asynchronous way. Firstly a P300 based BCI system was developed and tested in a virtual smart home environment implementation to work with a high accuracy and a high degree of freedom. Secondly, in order to initiate and stop the operation of the P300 BCI, a SSVEP based toggle switch was implemented. Results indicate that a P300 based system is very well suitable for applications with several controllable devices and where a discrete control command is desired. A SSVEP based system is more suitable if a continuous control signal is needed and the number of commands is rather limited. The combination of a SSVEP based BCI as a toggle switch allows to arbitrarily initiate and stop the P300 selection and yielded in all subjects very high reliability and accuracy.