RSVP keyboard: An EEG based typing interface

TLDR

Communication is essential, yet people with locked‑in syndrome lack efficient assistive systems; existing EEG‑based brain interfaces rely on many stimulus repetitions, compromising speed, which is critical for timely communication. The study aims to develop a system that achieves high accuracy and speed simultaneously for brain‑typing. It utilizes rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) combined with language models to assist letter selection during the brain‑typing process. Initial results from the RSVP Keyboard system on healthy and locked‑in subjects indicate that single‑trial or few‑trial accurate letter selection is achievable.

Abstract

Humans need communication. The desire to communicate remains one of the primary issues for people with locked-in syndrome (LIS). While many assistive and augmentative communication systems that use various physiological signals are available commercially, the need is not satisfactorily met. Brain interfaces, in particular, those that utilize event related potentials (ERP) in electroencephalography (EEG) to detect the intent of a person noninvasively, are emerging as a promising communication interface to meet this need where existing options are insufficient. Existing brain interfaces for typing use many repetitions of the visual stimuli in order to increase accuracy at the cost of speed. However, speed is also crucial and is an integral portion of peer-to-peer communication; a message that is not delivered timely often looses its importance. Consequently, we utilize rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) in conjunction with language models in order to assist letter selection during the brain-typing process with the final goal of developing a system that achieves high accuracy and speed simultaneously. This paper presents initial results from the RSVP Keyboard system that is under development. These initial results on healthy and locked-in subjects show that single-trial or few-trial accurate letter selection may be possible with the RSVP Keyboard paradigm.