Development of low cost 18-channel simultaneous sampling EEG data acquisition system for Brain Computer Interfacing
Abstract
Brain computer interface provides an exciting new way for patients with serve motor disabilities to communicate with the world around them. Since its perception I 990, this field of mind machine in interface has seen some major advancements. Locked-in patients have now a way to communicate to an extent that was never though possible. However with all these advancements the systems used today are painfully slow and only perform a fraction of task that normal human being is able to perform in the same given amount of time. This project aims to increases the speed of present system so that it is less boring and faster to use.
This undergraduate project is an attempt to introduce this new technology to Pakistan. Although many attempts had been made in the past 2 or 3 years in many universities in Pakistan to successfully pull off this project, the fact is that none they succeeded in doing so. With all the time, money and effort that we have put in this project we hope that we will successfully pull off this project and would not suffer the same fate as that of our contemporaries.
Due to the lack of timely funding and the fact that all the components for the project had to be exported from abroad, this project is taking more time then it should have. Due to these and other reasons we were unable to complete this project in the amount of time given to us. However we are not bothered by that .We will continue to pursue our goals and complete this project no matter how long it takes. We don’t want our and the university’s investment to go to waste. So we will continue this project till the day we get some useful results.
Brain computer interface is very difficult and deeply involved project requiring expertise from various disciplines to work in tandem. This project was divided into two main portions, the hardware and the software. The hardware captures the brainwaves and gives them to the software. The software does all the preprocessing, classification etc. All those who have successfully pulled off this project to date have bought the hardware readymade so all they had to do is to concentrate their entire efforts into the software. However with the hardware that costs 7000 Euros at the very least, it’s a luxury that we were unable to afford. So in these circumstances we decided to design and fabricate our own hardware. That’s why this project is taking so long to complete.
This thesis report attempts to give a brief introduction to brain computer interface. Then we explain in great detail the technical issues involved in the design and fabrication of the hardware stage of this project.Since the software works on the signal coming from the hardware that’s why we are unable to provide any information whatsoever about the algorithms in the software. Software is implementable only when one has a working hardware. So this thesis report will explain the hardware part of the project only.