A Brain-Computer Interface for Controlling a Wheelchair Based Virtual Simulation Using the Unicorn EEG Headset and the P300 Speller Board

The brain-computer interface (BCI) is a multidisciplinary research field at improving the biomedical engineering with innovator systems for helping people with neuromotor disabilities. This paper proposes a new solution to introduce the BCI as a portable, robust, and attractive technology right in the home environment of the users. The proposed application is related to using the mental commands for guiding a 3D model of a wheelchair by following different movement directions. The mental commands are triggered by the detection of the P300 evoked potentials from the Unicorn EEG headset provided by the GTEC Medical Engineering company. The wheelchair-based simulation is implemented in the LabVIEW programming environment by using the dedicated functions from the 3D Picture control. The control of the 3D wheelchair supposes to enable the corresponding operations of translating and rotating the elements from the 3D structure, as well as to accomplish its movement across different directions (forward, backward, turning left or right). The proposed software application involved the UDP based integration between LabVIEW and Unicorn P300 Speller. Moreover, the LabVIEW simulation provides multiple scenarios comprising different trajectories for guiding the wheelchair to reach the established destinations. The difficulty levels are increasing, and the users are required to achieve challenging tasks related to controlling the BCI by correctly transmitting the P300 based command. This paper presents three experimental sessions composed of three difficulty levels, such as: beginner (6 experiments with 2–3 commands each, intermediate (4 experiments with 7 commands each), and advanced (2 experiments with 13–14 commands each).