Where It’s AT
The ALS Association National
Office Assistive Technology Newsletter
April
2011
Two Interesting BCI (Brain-Computer
Interface) Articles
The Economic
Times, Jan
8, 2011
A new software platform, developed by French scientists, which was
demonstrated at a tech fest at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
allows individuals to control computer commands by just a
'thought'.
Acting as an interface designed to translate what happens in the
brain into a computer command, this software --'OpenViBE'-- is the outcome
of a project initiated in 2005 and has a multitude of potential
applications.
"The OpenViBE software platform facilitates the design, testing and
use of 'brain-computer interfaces' - in other words, systems that process
the electrical signals linked with brain activity and translate them into a
command that can be understood by machines," computer scientists Yann
Renard and Laurent Bonnet said while demonstrating the software at the
Department of Computer Sciences, IIT, here
yesterday.
These allow individuals to communicate with a computer or any
automated system without using their hands or other movements to activate a
button or remote control, they said.
"OpenViBE provides a tool that is aimed at a varied audience, from
researchers and clinicians to video game developers," they
said.
To a query on whether writing by thought was now possible, the
scientists replied in affirmative.
A person wearing an EEG (electroencephalogram) cap focuses his
attention on the letter that he wants to spell out. When this letter
flashes, a particular brain wave is generated which is picked up, detected
and interpreted by the machine, they said.
Explaining further in technical terms, the scientists said,
"OpenViBE is a series of software libraries and modules written in C++ that
can be simply and effectively integrated in order to design real-time
applications. Programmer users can develop their own code, while
non-programmers can use the graphical
interface."
The Brain-Computer Interfaces and OpenViBE can also be used to
assist those with motor disabilities -- particularly entirely paralyzed
persons suffering from locked-in syndrome, in multimedia -- video games and
virtual reality and in general to facilitate any type of interaction with
an automated system like robotics, home
automation.
"They also open up possibilities to treat certain neurological
problems, attention disorders, motor recovery after a stroke for example,
through rehabilitation processes such as neuro feedback," the scientists
said.
Music is all in
the mind
Nature News,
March 18, 2011-04-04
A
brain–computer interface allows paralyzed patients to play music with
brainpower alone.
The brain-computer interface allows
paralyzed patients to play music just by thinking about
it.ICCMR Research Team -
A pianist plays
a series of notes, and the woman echoes them on a computerized music
system. The woman then goes on to play a simple improvised melody over a
looped backing track. It doesn't sound like much of a musical challenge
— except that the woman is paralyzed after a stroke, and can make
only eye, facial and slight head movements. She is making the music purely
by thinking.
This is a trial
of a computer-music system that interacts directly with the user's brain,
by picking up the tiny electrical impulses of neurons. The device,
developed by composer and computer-music specialist Eduardo Miranda of the
University of Plymouth, UK, working with computer scientists at the
"This is an
interesting avenue, and might be very useful for patients," says Rainer
Goebel, a neuroscientist at
Evidence
suggests that musical participation can be beneficial for people with
neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and Parkinson's disease. But
people who have almost no muscle movement have generally been excluded from
such benefits, and can enjoy music only through passive
listening.
The development
of brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) that enable users to control
computer functions by mind alone offer new possibilities for such
people. In general, these
interfaces rely on the user's ability to learn how to self-induce
particular mental states that can be detected by brain-scanning
technologies.
Miranda and his
colleagues have used one of the oldest of these systems:
electroencephalography (EEG), in which electrodes on the skull pick up
faint neural signals. The EEG signal can be processed quickly, allowing
fast response times, and the instrument is cheaper and more portable than
brain-scanning techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging and
positron-emission tomography.
Previous
efforts using BCIs have focused on moving computer screen icons such as
cursors, but Miranda's team sought to achieve the much more complex task of
enabling users to play and compose music. Miranda says that he first became
aware of the then-emerging field of BCIs more than a decade ago while
researching how to make music using brainwaves. "When I realized the
potential of a musical BCI for the wellbeing of severely disabled people,"
he says, "I couldn't leave the idea alone. Now I can't separate this work
from my activities as a composer."
The trick is to
teach the user how to associate particular brain signals with specific
tasks by presenting a repeating stimulus — auditory, visual or
tactile — and getting the user to focus on it. This elicits a
distinctive, detectable pattern in the EEG signal. Miranda and his
colleagues show several flashing 'buttons' on a computer screen, which each
trigger a musical event. The users push a button just by directing their
attention to it.
For example, a
button could be used to generate a melody from a pre-selected set of notes.
The user can alter the intensity of the control signal – how 'hard'
the button is pressed – by varying the intensity of attention, and
the result is fed back to them visually as a change in the button's size.
In this way, any one of several notes can be selected by mentally altering
the intensity of pressing.
With a little
practice, this allows users to create a melody as if they were selecting
keys on a piano. And, as with learning an instrument, say the researchers,
"the more one practices the better one becomes".
The researchers
trialed their system on a female patient who has locked-in syndrome, a form
of almost total paralysis caused by brain lesions, at the Royal Hospital
for Neuro-disability in London. During a two-hour session, she got the hang
of the system and was eventually playing along with a backing track. She
reported that "it was great to be in control
again".
Goebel points
out that the patients still need to be able to control their eye movements,
which people with total locked-in syndrome cannot. In such partial cases,
he says, "one can usually use gaze directly for controlling devices,
instead of an EEG system". But Miranda points out that eye-gazing alone
does not permit variations in the intensity of the signal. "Eye gazing is
comparable to a mouse or joystick," he says. "Our system adds another
dimension, which is the intensity of the choice. That's crucial for our
musical system."
Miranda says
that although increasing the complexity of the musical tasks is not a
priority, music therapists have suggested it would be better if the system
were more like a musical instrument — for instance, with an interface
that looks like a piano keyboard. He admits that it is not easy to raise
the number of buttons or keys beyond four, but is confident that "we will
get there eventually".
"The flashing
thing does not need to be on a computer screen," he says. It could, for
example, be a physical electronic keyboard with light-emitting diodes on
the keys. "You could play it by staring at the keys," he says.
911 Emergency Services for Individuals with Disabilities Survey
Released
On March 16, 2011, the FCC's Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC) released a national on-line survey to determine the most effective and efficient technologies and methods by which persons with disabilities may access Next Generation 9-1-1 emergency services systems. Among other things, the survey asks about accessing emergency services via video, text, and voice. The results of the survey will inform the EAAC as it develops recommendations for the FCC to draft rules to ensure that people with disabilities can access NG 9-1-1 services. The survey is available in English, Spanish and American Sign Language (ASL) video).
This survey will be available until April 24, 2011. We encourage people with disabilities to complete this survey, and share information about the survey with other people with disabilities and organizations that represent persons with disabilities.
Link to the survey in English and ASL:
Link to the survey in Spanish: