Projects Profile
Project Title
On the use of Brain-Computer Interfacing in rehabilitation
Partnership
Dr. Chistopher James , University of Southampton
Prof Shangkai Gao, Institute of Neural Engineering, Tsinghua University
Project Aim
Interfacing computer equipment with the brain is a reality, it is already possible to communicate directly through “thought” alone. Research is now underway to make the process more efficient and practical. This project aims to bring together BCI researchers in the UK with a top BCI lab in China to exchange ideas and specifically address the possibility of a real-world BCI system for use outside of the laboratory.
Inspiration for the projects
This project has clear social significance. No commercial system exists to enable Brain Computer Interaction (BCI) to be used away from the laboratory. The proposed partnership may help lead to a useable system that has a viable commercial future due to enhanced usability. There are off-shoots to this technology in the gaming and sports industry which could also be exploited as a consequence. In the gaming industry using “thought” control to interact with on-screen characters is already the subject of research in the field. In the sporting world the use of BCI as a system to help train athletes to know when they have reached there peak during a training regime may also be very lucrative.
Commercial Potential and Further Development
The partnership grant is being applied for in order to establish a link between two laboratories that are producing good research on the use of BCI for communication and rehabilitation. Both labs have strengths in differing areas of the vast field of BCI and if successful the partnership grant would help bring both labs together to identify areas within the development of BCI that will benefit from our mutual strengths. Of particular interest is to explore the possibility of applying algorithms developed within the UK to BCI paradigms and hardware in use in China. The purchase of the small, light-weight, battery operated and wireless EEG equipment will also enable the UK team to work on a system that is useable outside of the laboratory. The outcome will not only be able to strengthen the research output of both labs, but it would also make the possibility of a real-world, practical implementation of a BCI system, more probable.
