Playing checkers with your mind: an application of a SSVEP-based brain-computer interface

There are many Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) today that rely on a user’s gaze and visual focus as inputs. However, most of these BCIs have been limited in scope to single users and stimuli in fixed positions. To make BCIs more practical, they should account for dynamic spatial configurations of stimuli whose positions correspond to an area in the physical environment where users would like to interact. In this project we present an application for using a BCI based on Steady-State Visually Evoked Potentials (SSVEP) to play a game of checkers. We light squares on a checkerboard with flickering LEDs to elicit SSVEP responses in the players. When a player takes an action, he focuses his gaze on a particular square. We then classify the resulting SSVEP and a robot arm picks or places selected pieces on the board. We show how to coordinate BCI inputs from multiple users to control a robot arm in a physical environment with stimuli whose spatial configurations can change.