A Wearable Remote Brain Machine Interface Using Smartphones and the Mobile Network

A Remote Brain Machine Interface (RBMI) can be defined as a means to control a machine that is in a different geographical location than the user. Thus far, simulations for such interfaces using multiple channels of non-invasive EEG signals acquired through tethered systems have been used for control of vehicles in military and exploratory applications, and for ongoing research on RBMI controlled robotic surgery. However, simple applications of RBMI in home automation for the elderly, low cost assistive devices for the disabled, home security etc can be built using fewer and more portable sensor systems. As a case study, we have implemented such an interface using a smartphone for the RBMI. The system consists of a wearable Bluetooth-enabled head band with dry electrodes for EEG and EOG signals, a smartphone to collect and relay the data, a laptop with internet connectivity at a remote location to retrieve the data and generate control commands. In this paper, we describe the information architecture, the design of the wearable nanosensors and algorithms for control command generation based on EEG and EOG. A selected demonstration will be shown.