Latest Research and Reviews about Brain-Computer Interfaces

If you are looking for the latest research and reviews about BCI/BMI this site can be one of the best options offering you many results being almost of them with public access.

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Top 25 Brain-Computer Interfaces Solutions

With the uninterrupted advancement of technology, BCIs also come up with new solutions that are increasingly available outside laboratories or hospital environments. The company Pantech Solutions has a recent article dedicated to this subject. As a few examples we have:

• Brain Controlled Wheel Chair;
• Brain Keyboard;
• Drowsy Driver Detection; 
• Emotion Recognition;
• Brainwaves for Neuromarketing;  
• Brain Controlled Automatic Braking System;  
• Meditation Stoplight.

Press here to read the Top 25 BCI Projects 2018 published by the Pantech Solutions.

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BCI and Neurotechnology - gTEC solutions

As most readers of this blog knows, gTEC is an Austrian company dedicated for several years to the BCI research. At present it has a very wide catalog of EEG equipment as well as signal processing software. As a user of these company solutions and also in the support that I have always obtained from the technical team I consider gTEC an excellent investment option in BCI research area.

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Carnegie Mellon Forum on Biomedical Engineering

The Carnegie Mellon Forum on Biomedical Engineering, to be held at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on September 21, 2018, will provide a platform for discussions and identification of grand challenges and frontiers in biomedical engineering research, education, and translation.

PROGRAM

• Microphysiological Models that Rely on Emergence in Multi-Cellular Engineered Living Systems;
• World’s Deepest-Penetration and Fastest Cameras: Photoacoustic Tomography and Compressed Ultrafast Photography;
• Challenges and Trends in Medical Robotics;
• Driving and Reshaping Biotechnology;
• Tackling Grand Challenges in Precision Medicine Through Biomedical Engineering;
• Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Advanced Imaging and Precision Medicine;
• Challenges in Translating BME Technologies;
• Challenges in BME Education;
• CMU Approach to Addressing BME Challenges;
• Plenary Panel Discussion;
• Poster Session.

The forum will consist of keynote and plenary talks, plenary panel discussions, and poster presentations in the frontiers of biomedical engineering. A poster award competition will be open to students, postdocs or residents who present their research in any area interfacing engineering with medicine and health. Selected oral and poster presentations will be invited for submission to a special issue in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. Faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, postdocs, residents, clinicians and industrial practitioners, within and outside of CMU, are all cordially invited.

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Where is the Consciousness Brain Region?

Elisa Clement published a new article in the AR Magazine from Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon - Portugal. 

Most scholars consider consciousness to have two components: wakefulness and awareness. Wakefulness is fairly easy to define and measure experimentally, through EEG, because the pattern of activity shown by EEG is different in brains of awake subjects, compared to subjects who are asleep.

www.gregadunn.com

Awareness, on the other hand, is neither easy to assess, nor to define – what exactly does it mean to be “aware” of your surroundings? Are there different stages or levels of awareness? Are there any other more accurate and objective ways of assessing awareness other than through questionnaires filled in by subjects, which is how it is often assessed?

But the most crucial and interesting question yet to be answered is the following: is consciousness generated through the orchestrated activation of multiple brain areas, or is there one particular area responsible for it?

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Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships

An interesting opportunity for research scholarship starting at 2019 is available to post-graduate researchers that are planning to go to Switzerland to do research at doctoral or post-doctoral level. Only candidates nominated by an academic mentor will be considered and must be born after 1982.

Each year the Swiss Confederation awards Government Excellence Scholarships to promote international exchange and research cooperation between Switzerland and over 180 other countries. Recipients are selected by the awarding body, the Federal Commission for Scholarships for Foreign Students (FCS).

The University of Geneva that includes the BCI groups "Electrical Neuroimaging Group" and "Affective Computing and Multimodal Interaction Group" is one of the selected educational institutions.

Additional allowances:

• The scholarship amounts to a monthly payment of CHF 1,920;
• Scholarship holders from outside continental Europe receive a flight allowance (lump sum) for a ticket back to their country of origin (provided at the end of the scholarship);
• Special CHF 300 housing allowance (paid once at the beginning of the scholarship).

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Learning with BCIs - from Prof. Aaron Batista

A very interesting 30 minutes presentation about BCI / Machine Learning and NeuroScience explained by Professor Aaron Batista.

When we learn, the brain changes at nearly every level of organization. Synapses form and strengthen, individual neurons change their tuning properties, and cortical maps expand. My research examines how learning alters the coordinated activity of populations of neurons. This is a particularly important level at which to study learning because it is the action of populations of neurons that drive behavior, generate perceptions, and undergird our cognition.

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3 BCI Jobs - Inria Bordeaux Sud Ouest

3 New BCI vacancies are available to start in September / October 2018:

• Computational Modeling of Mental Imagery-based BCI user training - PhD position;
• Redefining EEG Signal Processing and Machine Learning to ensure efficient Mental Imagery-based BCI user training - Post-doc position;
• R&D Engineer position to implement brain signal processing tools and BCI applications in the OpenViBE software platform - Engineer position. 

For more information about BCI/EEG press here.

Poster and Exhibitor Demonstrations at 7th International BCI Meeting

In the 7th International BCI meeting at Asilomar, California - USA, many papers presentations took place during the congress. This PDF provided by BCI Society, with more than 200 pages, describes a resume of each poster and exhibitor demonstrations divided by the following themes:

• BCI Implant- Control / Other;
• BCI Non-Invasive- Control / Other;
• Signal Acquisition / Analysis;
• User Aspect: Experience and Ethics.

For more information about BCI/EEG press here.

EPOC Flex - The new EEG device from Emotiv

EMOTIV company has a new EEG device available for $2100. The EPOC Flex as 32 channels (+ 2 references), CMS/DRL configurable in any 10-20 location or on ears, 1024 internal downsampled to 128 SPS, realtime CQ monitor (patented), 0.16 – 43Hz, 16 bit per channel, 0.51μV @ 16 bit,  ±4.17 mV, sintered silver-silver chloride, 9 axis sensor, proprietary 2.4GHz wireless and li-poly battery, 680 mAh up to 9 hours.

EPOC Flex combines the award-winning wireless technology of our EPOC+ headset with the flexibility and high density afforded by more traditional EEG head cap systems. EPOC Flex is a wireless control box that works alongside the EasyCap system. It can be configured to record from any of the standard 10-20 EEG positions for up to 32 channels.

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Highly Interactive BCI based on Flicker-Free SSVEP

Visual evoked potential-based brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) have been widely investigated because of their easy system configuration and high information transfer rate (ITR). However, the uncomfortable flicker or brightness modulation of existing methods restricts the practical interactivity of BCI applications. In our study, a flicker-free steady-state motion visual evoked potential (FF-SSMVEP)-based BCI was proposed. Ring-shaped motion checkerboard patterns with oscillating expansion and contraction motions were presented by a high-refresh-rate display for visual stimuli, and the brightness of the stimuli was kept constant. 

Compared with SSVEPs, few harmonic responses were elicited by FF-SSMVEPs, and the frequency energy of SSMVEPs was concentrative. These FF-SSMVEPs evoked “single fundamental peak” responses after signal processing without harmonic and subharmonic peaks. More stimulation frequencies could thus be selected to elicit more responding fundamental peaks without overlap with harmonic peaks. A 40-target online SSMVEP-based BCI system was achieved that provided an ITR up to 1.52 bits per second (91.2 bits/min), and user training was not required to use this system. This study also demonstrated that the FF-SSMVEP-based BCI system has low contrast and low visual fatigue, offering a better alternative to conventional SSVEP-based BCIs.

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"BCI: Two Concurrent Learning Problems" by Maureen Clerc

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) are systems which provide real-time interaction through brain activity, bypassing traditional interfaces such as keyboard or mouse. A target application of BCI is to restore mobility or autonomy to severely disabled patients. In BCI, new modes of perception and interaction come into play, which users must learn, just as infants learn to explore their sensorimotor system. Feedback is central in this learning. From the point of view of the system, features must be extracted from the brain activity, and translated into commands. (...) It is for instance possible to monitor the brain's reaction to the BCI outcome. In this talk I will present some of the current machine learning methods which are used in BCI, and the adaptation of BCI to users' needs.

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BCI and EEG Projects in European Commission

It is the European Commission's primary public repository and portal to disseminate information on all EU-funded research projects and their results in the broadest sense. The website and repository include all public information held by the Commission (project factsheets, publishable reports and deliverables), editorial content to support communication and exploitation (news, events, success stories, magazines, multilingual "results in brief" for the broader public) and comprehensive links to external sources such as open access publications and websites.

If you want to know all the European Research Projects about a specified area, as "BCI" or "EEG", you can use the Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS). 
For example, to get all the results containning BCI, written in english, from September, 1 - 2017, type in the search field "('BCI') AND language='en' AND contentUpdateDate>=2017-09-01" or just use the "advanced search" option.

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PhyCS 2018 - 5th International Conference on Physiological Computing Systems

PhyCS is the annual meeting of the physiological interaction and computing community, and serves as the main international forum for engineers, computer scientists and health professionals, interested in outstanding research and development that bridges the gap between physiological data handling and human-computer interaction. 

PhyCS brings together people interested in creating novel interaction devices, adaptable interfaces, algorithms and tools, through the study, planning, and design of interfaces between people and computers that are supported by multimodal biosignals. 

TOPIC AREAS:

DEVICES

• Biomedical Devices for Computer Interaction
• Brain-computer Interfaces
• Wearable Sensors and Systems
• Cybernetics and User Interface Technologies
• (...)

METHODOLOGIES AND METHODS

• Biosignal Acquisition, Analysis and Processing
• Simulation of Physiological Processes
• Pattern Recognition
• Neural Networks
• (...)

HUMAN FACTORS

• User Experience
• Usability
• Adaptive Interfaces
• Human Factors in Physiological Computing
• (...)

APPLICATIONS

• Physiology-driven Computer Interaction
• Biofeedback Technologies
• Assistive Technologies
• Physiological Computing in Mobile Devices
• (...)

For more information about BCI/EEG press here.

 

Artificial Intelligence + Machine Learning = Deep Learning EEG

How can we apply AI and Machine Learning to EEG data? There is evidence that EEG characteristics can be used as an indication (a biomarker) of some diseases. For example, in a project funded by The Michael J. Fox Foundation, our findings indicate that there are significant differences in the EEG data of different RBD patients compared to healthy populations. More specifically, RBD subjects as a group had larger power in the frontal EEG electrodes than healthy subjects. Again taken as a group. Therefore, there is statistical significance in the difference between one group and the other. 

However, if we want to use this as a means for diagnosis, we need to take into account that diagnostic decisions are made on individuals, not on groups. For this to happen we need a decision system. We would input the data of a particular individual subject. Then we would get an answer on whether this individual is likely to develop, for instance, a neurodegenerative disease. Here is where Machine Learning and Deep Learning come into play.

For more information about BCI/EEG press here.

Open Database of Live Human Brain Cells

The Allen Institute for Brain Science has added the first data from human nerve cells to the Allen Cell Types Database: a publicly available tool for researchers to explore and understand the building blocks of the human brain. This first release includes electrical properties from approximately 300 living cortical neurons of different types derived from 36 patients, with accompanying 3D reconstructions of their shape or anatomy for 100 cells, and computer models simulating the electrical behavior of these neurons. 

The database will also contain gene expression profiles, based on measurements of all genes used by 16,000 individual cells, from three adult human brains. Data from these human cells provide an unparalleled window into the intricate components, circuitry and function of the human neocortex, including features that make our brains unique.

For more information about BCI/EEG press here.

Workshops Schedule - 7th International BCI Meeting, 2018

The 7th International BCI Meeting: “BCIs: Not Getting Lost in Translation”, is scheduled for May 21 – 25, 2018 at the Asilomar, California, USA.

SESSION 1- WEDNESDAY, MAY 23 (9:00-12:00)

• BCIs for stroke rehabilitation­­­
• Progress in Decoding Speech processes using intracranial signals
• Noninvasive BCI-control of FES for grasp restoration in high spinal cord injured humans
• Collaborative and Competing Multi-Brain BCI’s
• ECoG based BCIs
• Examining Ethical Assumptions About Neural Engineering and BCI Development
• Towards the Elusive Killer App for BCIs
• User-Centered Design in BCI development; A Broad Perspective
• ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Lower-limb brain-machine interfaces and their applications 

SESSION 2- THURSDAY, MAY 24 (9:00-12:00)

• BCIs for assessment of locked-in and DOC patients
• Turning negative into positives! Exploiting “negative” results in BCI research
• ­­­­­­­­Eye Tracking, Vision, and BCI
• Natural Language Processing & BCI
• ­­­­­­­­BCI and Augmented/Virtual Reality
• ­Recent Developments in Non-Invasive EEG SensorTechnology
• Making use of the future of BCI implant technology
• Clinical Applications of Brain-Computer Interfaces in Neurorehabilitation

SESSION 3- THURSDAY, MAY 24 (13:15-16:15)

• ECoG for control and mapping
• Real-time BCI communication for non-verbal individuals with cerebral palsy
• Tools for establishing neuroadaptive technology through passive BCIs
• Neurofeedback during Artistic Expression as Therapy
• Unsupervised Learning for BCIs
• Perception of Sensation Restored through Neural Interfaces
• From the lab into the wild: shaping methods and technologies for large-scale BCI research
• Standards for Neurotechnologies and Brain-Machine Interfacing

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28 Workshops from the 6th International BCI Meeting

The 6th International BCI Meeting was held 30 May–3 June 2016 at the Asilomar, California, USA. The conference included 28 workshops covering topics in BCI and brain–machine interface research. Topics included BCI for specific populations or applications, advancing BCI research through use of specific signals or technological advances, and translational and commercial issues to bring both implanted and non-invasive BCIs to market. To download the complete OpenAccess document in PDF format press here. 

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New features in "BCI over EEG" Blog

In this Blog header there is a new feature making possible to group the information by topics (BCI, EEG, Brain, Jobs, Conference,...) allowing a more organized search of the several published posts.

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Professor in Brain-Computer Interfaces and Neural Engineering

The School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering from the University of Essex - UK, is looking for Professor in BCI and neural engineering. 

As part of the continued expansion of the School, we are seeking to appoint two Professorships in two of the four areas of specialism in the school. We are also recruiting in the areas of:

• Artificial Intelligence and Computer Games
• Cyber Physical Systems
• Human Language Technology/Natural Language Processing.

The successful candidate will have a PhD in a relevant discipline and relevant academic expertise in a related area. You will have a proven track record of internationally excellent research relevant to the post, a strong track record of published academic output at international levels of recognition, success in raising grant income appropriate to the research discipline, and a sustained record of effectiveness in relation to teaching and learning at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

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A Multi-APP Framework for BCI/EEG on Android Smartphones

If you want to process EEG on an Android smartphone then this paper EEG Recording and Online Signal Processing on Android: A Multiapp Framework for Brain-Computer Interfaces on Smartphone from School of Medicine and Health Sciences - University of Oldenburg, published in Biomed Research International, may be of great interest: .

Our aim was the development and validation of a modular signal processing and classification application enabling online EEG signal processing on off-the-shelf mobile Android devices. The software application SCALA (Signal ProCessing and Classification on Android) supports a standardized communication interface to exchange information with external software and hardware. Approach. In order to implement a closed-loop BCI on the smartphone, we used a multiapp framework, which integrates applications for stimulus presentation, data acquisition, data processing, classification, and delivery of feedback to the user. We have implemented the open source signal processing application SCALA. We present timing test results supporting sufficient temporal precision of audio events. We also validate SCALA with a well-established auditory selective attention paradigm and report above chance level classification results for all participants. Regarding the 24-channel EEG signal quality, evaluation results confirm typical sound onset auditory evoked potentials as well as cognitive event-related potentials that differentiate between correct and incorrect task performance feedback. Significance. We present a fully smartphone-operated, modular closed-loop BCI system that can be combined with different EEG amplifiers and can easily implement other paradigms.

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cEEGrids: Concealed, Unobtrusive Ear-Centered EEG Acquisition

Martin G. Bleichner and Stefan Debener from University of Oldenburg, Germany, created the cEEGrids: an EEG system motion tolerant, highly portable, unobtrusive, and near invisible data acquisition with minimum disturbance of a user's daily activities. This new solution represents one more important step in the portability of EEG that can be used in a much more natural way.

We discuss work showing that miniature electrodes placed in and around the human ear are a feasible solution, as they are sensitive enough to pick up electrical signals stemming from various brain and non-brain sources. We also describe the cEEGrid flex-printed sensor array, which enables unobtrusive multi-channel EEG acquisition from around the ear. In a number of validation studies we found that the cEEGrid enables the recording of meaningful continuous EEG, event-related potentials and neural oscillations. 

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BioSignals 2019 - 12th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies

The purpose of the International Conference on Bio-inspired Systems and Signal Processing is to bring together researchers and practitioners from multiple areas of knowledge, including biology, medicine, engineering and other physical sciences, interested in studying and using models and techniques inspired from or applied to biological systems. (...) The analysis and use of these signals is a multidisciplinary area including signal processing, pattern recognition and computational intelligence techniques, amongst others.

UPCOMING DEADLINES

• Regular Paper Submission: October 1, 2018
• Regular Paper Authors Notification: November 29, 2018
• Regular Paper Camera Ready and Registration : December 13, 2018

For more information about BCI/EEG press here.

NoiseTag BCI - High Accuracy without Trainning

The Donders Research Group from Radboud University created a BCI/EEG platform which aims high accuracy, speed reaction and user-friendly. The main features improved are CCA-based Reconvolution, Dynamic stopping, Zero-training, Asynchronous, Headsets, Adaptive and Applications.

We found a method that turns BCI into plug and play. The first button you look at will take the system a bit longer to figure out, taking about 30 seconds. Then the second button goes down to 10 seconds. Then the 3rd-4th is down to 1-2 seconds. A person can get up to 1 button per second. 

The headband uses dry electrodes, so we do not have to use water.

In the Noise-Tagging project we utilize pseudo-random noise-codes as stimulation sequences (i.e., stimuli are tagged with noise) for evoked Brain BCI. These so-called noise-tags exhibit a spread-spectrum signal and when applied as stimuli, these evoke Broad-Band Evoked Potentials (BBEP) visible in the EEG. We have designed a generative method – Reconvolution – which combines both deconvolution and convolution to learn and predict responses to these noise-tags. Specifically, adhering to the superposition hypothesis, the complex BBEP can be decomposed into a summation of time-shifted versions of a/some transient response(s). 

For more information about BCI/EEG press here. 

10 EEG Headsets Technical Overview Comparison

The IMOTIONS company published a recent comparison about the 10 headsets more used in EEG research. Number of channels, Sampling Rate, Type of Communication Medically Certified are some of the characteristics analyzed.

Finding the right EEG device for your research can be a tricky process. There are a multitude of aspects to consider, and the importance of each can depend on your approach. To add to the confusion, each manufacturer shows (or doesn’t show!) the information in different ways, making the search for the right device even more difficult. Below, we’ve put together a listing of some of the most important variables that you’ll want to consider when investing in an EEG headset.

Headset Devices:

• Neuroelectrics Enobio 32 
• Emotiv Epoc 
• OpenBCI Cyton 
• ABM B-Alert X24 
• Brain Products ActiCHamp 
• AntNeuro eego 
• BioSemi 
• g.tec nautilus 
• Cognionics Mobile 72 
• mBrainTrain Smarting 

All this study can be found in IMOTIONS headset comparison.

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JASP - Open-source project for Data Analysis resulting in Fast Conclusions with Minimal Work

JASP is an open-source project supported by the University of Amsterdam with an intuitive interface offering standard data analysis in classical or bayesian form.

JASP was designed with the user in mind: APA-formatted tables can be copy-pasted in your word processor, output can be extensively annotated, adjustment of input options dynamically changes the output, and selecting old output revives the associated input choices for inspection and adjustment.

JASP is open-source and free of charge, and we provide it as a service to the community. JASP is also statistically inclusive, as it offers both frequentist and Bayesian analysis methods. Indeed, the primary motivation for JASP is to make it easier for statistical practitioners to conduct Bayesian analyses.

Feature List:

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OpenVibe - One of the Best BCI Software

OpenViBE is a free software platform dedicated to design, process and classify EEG data to be used in brain-computer interfaces. The package includes some tools to create and run custom applications (drag & drop), it is compatible with many EEG devices and demo programs are ready for use. Programming in Python is also possible.

OpenVibe is, in my opinion, one of the best software platform in BCIs so, if you want to learn how to use it, the tutorial from MENSIA enterprise is the best way to start. 

OpenViBE Consortium is the future management and funding structure for OpenViBE. Interested parties can join the consortium as members or donate to it. The consortium will be a non-profit that uses its funds to hire dedicated engineers. The engineers in turn develop the platform to directions that are of interest to the consortium members.

For more information about BCI/EEG press here.

NeuroTechNix 2018 Congress - Neuro: Prosthetics, Imaging, Sensing, Informatics, Computing, Modulation and Engineering

Neurotechnology shows a very high potential of enhancing human activities, involving technologies such as neural rehabilitation, neural prosthesis, neuromodulation, neurosensing and diagnosis, and other combinations of neurological and biomedical knowledge with engineering technologies.

Congress Areas

AREA 1: NEURAL REHABILITATION AND NEUROPROSTHETICS

• Assistive Technologies
• Telerehabilitation
• Virtual Reality Tools
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication
• Biofeedback Therapy
• Brain/Neural Computer Interfaces
• Clinical and Social Impact of Neurotechnology
• Human Augmentation
• Mobile Technologies
• Privacy, Security and Neuroethics
• Robotic Assisted Therapy

AREA 2: NEUROIMAGING AND NEUROSENSING

• Artificial Intelligence for Neuroimaging
• Sleep Analysis
• Brain imaging
• Diagnostic Sensors
• EEG and EMG Signal Processing and Applications
• Intelligent Diagnosis Systems
• Mobile and Embedded Devices
• Neural Signal Processing
• Positron Emission Tomography
• Real Time Monitoring of Neuromuscular and Neural Activity

AREA 3: NEUROINFORMATICS AND NEUROCOMPUTING

• (Artificial) Neural Networks
• Brain Models and Functions
• Cognitive Science and Psychology
• Computational Neuroscience
• Learning Systems and Memory
• Neurobiology
• Reverse Engineering the Brain
• Self-organization and Evolution

AREA 4: NEUROMODULATION AND NEURAL ENGINEERING

• Biochips and Nanotechnology
• Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
• Translating into Clinical and Industrial Outcomes
• Bionic Vision
• Cochlear implants
• Cybernetics
• Deep Brain Stimulation
• Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES)
• Neuro-interface Prosthetic Devices
• Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation
• Optogenetics

The congress will be held in Seville - Spain, from 20 to 21 September 2018 and the Paper submission is May 2, 2018

For more information about BCI/EEG press here.

Next Generation of Neural Interfaces

The Imperial College of London has a Next Generation Neural Interfaces research group to "create interfaces that will change the way the people interact with surroundings". Another team of researchers that surely contribute in advancing of BCIs area.

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Open-Source Python Code for BCI/EEG

Visbrain is an open-source python 3 package dedicated to brain signals visualization. It is based on top of VisPy and PyQt and is distributed under the 3-Clause BSD license.

Visbrain includes six visualization modules :

• Brain : visualize EEG/MEG/Intracranial data, connectivity in a standard MNI 3D brain 
• Sleep : visualize polysomnographic data and hypnogram edition 
• Signal : data-mining module for time-series inspection 
• Topo : display topographical maps 

For more information about BCI/EEG press here.