Autonomy and social inclusion through mixed reality Brain-Computer Interfaces: Connecting the disabled to their physical and social world

Motor disabilities of people arising from any origin have a dramatic effect on their quality of life. Some examples of neurologic nature include a person suffering from a severe brain injury resulting from a car collision or individuals who have suffered a brain stroke. For years, the severely disabled have learned to cope with their restricted autonomy, impacting on their daily activities like moving around or turning on the lights and ability for social interaction.

The project BrainAble is about empowering them and pursues to mitigate the limitations of the everyday life to which they are confronted to. Our initiative is to research, design, implement and validate an ICT-based HCI (Human Computer Interface) composed of BNCI (Brain Neural Computer Interface) sensors combined with affective computing and virtual environments.

In terms of HCI, BrainAble improves both direct and indirect interaction between the user and his smart home. Direct control is upgraded by creating tools that allow controlling inner and outer environments using a “hybrid” Brain Computer Interface (BNCI) system able to take into account other sources of information such as measures of boredom, confusion, frustration by means of the so-called physiological and affective sensors.

Human-Computer Interfaces are complemented by an intelligent Virtual Reality-based user interface with avatars and scenarios that will help the disabled move around freely, and interact with any sort of devices. Even more the VR will provide self-expression assets using music, pictures and text, communicate online and offline with other people, play games to counteract cognitive decline, and get trained in new functionalities and tasks.

Currently, the project consortium has finished the first year's prototype that demonstrates an AmI smart home system controlled via a BNCI interface. The prototype is aimed at obtaining a proof-of-concept of the BrainAble system which includes a BNCI to interact with: (1) inner environment functionalities such as the controlling a commercial television and lamp (2) a virtual avatar in a virtual model of the user’s home; and (3) outer environment giving more participation in today's modern social networks with the access to the micro-blogging service Twitter demonstrated.

Main scientific achievements accomplished are the development of a novel interface of BNCI, the Hex-O-Spell; Ambient Intelligent techniques such as the Context Facilitation for BCI interfaces which was presented in international congresses; and incorporation of the URC/UCH standard that facilitates the integration of new services or devices.

As an outcome, our initiative will produce a commercial product and a set of technologies intended to assist people with severe physical disabilities. The technology has the potential to assist those with special needs such as individuals living with Motor Neurone Disease or locked-in patients. The modular architecture and middleware utilized by BrainAble to connect user-centered bio-interfaces and interactive immersive environments to networks of devices and people, provide attractive assets for the market of high-tech home automation devices and intelligent and integrated smart homes.

  

What a BCI is? See the video from Dr. Brendan Allison

 

 

 

BrainAble project is sponsored by:  

 

 

                

 

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Consult details and benefits on the sponsoring programme