Date of Award

Spring 2015

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Program/Concentration

Biomedical Engineering

Committee Director

Dean J. Krusienski

Committee Member

Jiang Li

Committee Member

Tamer Nadeem

Committee Member

Alan Pope

Committee Member

Christian Zemlin

Abstract

There are many different neuromuscular disorders that disrupt the normal communication pathways between the brain and the rest of the body. These diseases often leave patients in a `locked-in" state, rendering them unable to communicate with their environment despite having cognitively normal brain function. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are augmentative communication devices that establish a direct link between the brain and a computer. Visual evoked potential (VEP)- based BCIs, which are dependent upon the use of salient visual stimuli, are amongst the fastest BCIs available and provide the highest communication rates compared to other BCI modalities. However. the majority of research focuses solely on improving the raw BCI performance; thus, most visual BCIs still suffer from a myriad of practical issues that make them impractical for everyday use. The focus of this dissertation is on the development of novel advancements and solutions that increase the practicality of VEP-based BCIs. The presented work shows the results of several studies that relate to characterizing and optimizing visual stimuli. improving ergonomic design. reducing visual irritation, and implementing a practical VEP-based BCI using an extensible software framework and mobile devices platforms.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/wbdn-2v05

ISBN

9781321840704

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