Influence of Error Rate on Frustration of BCI Users

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) are still much less reliable than other input devices. The error rates of BCIs range from 5% up to 60%. In this paper, we assess the subjective frustration, motivation, and fatigue of BCI users, when confronted to different levels of error rate. We conducted a BCI experiment in which the error rate was artificially controlled. Our results first show that a prolonged use of BCI significantly increases the perceived fatigue, and induces a drop in motivation. We also found that user frustration increases with the error rate of the system but this increase does not seem critical for small differences of error rate. Thus, for future BCIs, we would advise to favor user comfort over accuracy when the potential gain of accuracy remains small.