A General Framework for Brain-Computer Interface Design

The Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) research community has acknowledged that researchers are experiencing difficulties when they try to compare the BCI techniques described in the literature. In response to this situation, the community has stressed the need for objective methods to compare BCI technologies. Suggested improvements have included the development and use of benchmark applications and standard data sets. However, as a young, multidisciplinary research field, the BCI community lacks a common vocabulary. As a result, this deficiency leads to poor intergroup communication, which hinders the development of the desired methods of comparison. One of the principle reasons for the lack of common vocabulary is the absence of a common functional model of a BCI System. This paper proposes a new functional model for BCI System design. The model supports many features that facilitate the comparison of BCI technologies with other BCI and non-BCI user interface technologies. From this model, taxonomy for BCI System design is developed. Together the model and taxonomy are considered a general framework for BCI System design. The representational power of the proposed framework was evaluated by applying it to a set of existing BCI technologies. The framework could effectively describe all of the BCI System designs tested.