TUTORIAL SESSION

EEG signal processing in Brain-Computer Interface Applications

Dr. Gary Garcia-Molina
Philips Research, North America, USA
gary.garcia@philips.com

Abstract

Research in electroencephalogram (EEG) based Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) has been considerably expanding during the last few years. Such an expansion owes to a large extent to the multidisciplinary and challenging nature of BCI research. Signal processing and pattern recognition undoubtedly constitute essential components of a BCI system. Signal processing algorithms are applied to the EEG signals to decode mental states which are relevant for BCI operation. In this tutorial, the basic BCI concepts such as: brain activity monitoring, BCI operation, and the relevant mental states for BCI, are introduced. The main types of relevant mental states for BCI, namely motor imagery (ERD/ERS), steady state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP), and event related potentials are presented along with practical application examples.
The EEG processing for mental state decoding is described in depth. The multivariate nature of the EEG combined with the neuroscience knowledge on hemispheric brain specialization are advantageously taken into account to derive optimal combinations of the individual signals composing the EEG. Throughout the tutorial, practical applications of the BCI technology from scientific and commercial standpoints will be presented.

Qualifications of the Instructor(s)

Dr. Gary Garcia Molina has been active in BCI research for a decade.
In 2004, he obtained his doctoral degree from the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland (EPFL). His thesis
entitled "Direct Brain-Computer Communication Through Scalp Recorded
EEG Signals" was nominated for the Swiss best thesis award.
Since January 2005, Dr. Garcia is a Senior Researcher at Philips
Research Europe Laboratories (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) where he
leads a research activity aiming at developing practical
Brain-Computer Interfaces for the consumer market. From 2007, Gary
Garcia leads the Philips team that participates in the European
consortium BRAIN (www.brain-project.org) which has as main objective
the development of BCIs able to automatically adapt to the user and
his/her environment, and do not require any expert assistance.
Gary Garcia serves as an adviser and project reviewer for the
European-research program ICT (Information and Communication
Technologies) on Inclusion and Independent Living.
Dr. Garcia published numerous research papers, and holds four
patents on BCI related technology. He has extensive experience with
several types of BCIs and has been cooperating with numerous
laboratories academic and industry to develop BCI technology into
home appliances for the disabled and the healthy. He chaired
conference sessions on signal processing for BCI technology, and led
Philips seminars on EEG processing. In November 2008, he taught a
tutorial on BCIs based on Motor Imagery at the IEEE/BiOCAS
(Intelligent Biomedical systems) conference
(http://www.biocas2008.org/tutorials.html). In September 2009 he
gave a tutorial on Affective BCIs~\cite{garciaTutorialACII} at the
"Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction" (ACII) 2009
conference. In 2010 he gave two tutorials on signal processing for
EEG signals and BCI applications at the "European Signal Processing
Conference" EUSIPCO 2010, and the "International Conference on
Information Science, Signal Processing, and their Applications
(ISSPA 2010)".