Citation

Lin JS, Yang WC. International journal of innovative computing, information and control 2012; 8(9): 6011-6024.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper mainly proposed a wireless electroencephalogram (EEG)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) and a drive circuit for DC motors to control electric wheelchairs through a Bluetooth interface for paralyzed patients. Paralytic patients can not move freely and only use wheelchairs in their daily life. Especially, people getting motor neuron disease (MND) can only use the eyes and brain to exercise their willpower. Therefore, real-time EEG and eyes blinking signals can help these patients effectively. However, current BCI systems are usually complex and have to send the brain waves to a personal computer to process the EEG signals. In this paper, a simple BCI system and a drive circuit for DC motor can help paralytic patients easily drive the electric wheelchairs. The proposed BCI system consists of a wireless physiological signal-acquisition module and a signal processing unit. Here, the physiological signal acquisition module and signal processing unit were designed for extracting EEG and eyes blinking signals from brain waves which can be directly transformed into control signals to drive the electric wheelchairs. The advantages of the proposed BCI system are low power consumption and compact size so that the system can be suitable for the paralytic patients. The experimental results showed feasible action for the proposed BCI system and drive circuit with a practical operating in electric wheelchair applications. 2012 ICIC International.

Language: en

Keywords

Wheelchairs; Brain; DC motors; Personal computers; Electric machine control; Biomedical signal processing; Brain computer interface; Electroencephalography; Interfaces (computer); Medical computing; Neurons