OpenViBE: An Open-Source Software Platform to Design, Test, and Use Brain–Computer Interfaces in Real and Virtual Environments

TLDR

BCIs allow users to control computers solely through brain activity and are increasingly viewed as promising interaction devices for virtual reality environments. This paper presents OpenViBE, a platform that enables researchers to design, test, and deploy BCIs, illustrated with two VR applications. OpenViBE offers a highly modular architecture with VR/3D visualization, visual programming for non‑programmers, and includes demos where users move a virtual ball by imagining hand movements or control a spaceship with real or imagined foot movements. Online experiments and performance evaluations demonstrate that OpenViBE is suitable for VR BCI applications, and the software is freely available under an open‑source license.

Abstract

This paper describes the OpenViBE software platform which enables researchers to design, test, and use brain–computer interfaces (BCIs). BCIs are communication systems that enable users to send commands to computers solely by means of brain activity. BCIs are gaining interest among the virtual reality (VR) community since they have appeared as promising interaction devices for virtual environments (VEs). The key features of the platform are (1) high modularity, (2) embedded tools for visualization and feedback based on VR and 3D displays, (3) BCI design made available to non-programmers thanks to visual programming, and (4) various tools offered to the different types of users. The platform features are illustrated in this paper with two entertaining VR applications based on a BCI. In the first one, users can move a virtual ball by imagining hand movements, while in the second one, they can control a virtual spaceship using real or imagined foot movements. Online experiments with these applications together with the evaluation of the platform computational performances showed its suitability for the design of VR applications controlled with a BCI. OpenViBE is a free software distributed under an open-source license.