Applicability of the “Emotiv EEG Neuroheadset” as a user-friendly input interface

We aimed to develop an input interface by using the P3 component of visual event-related potentials (ERPs). When using electroencephalography (EEG) in daily applications, coping with ocular-motor artifacts and ensuring that the equipment is user-friendly are both important. To address the first issue, we applied a previously proposed method that applies an unmixing matrix to acquire independent components (ICs) obtained from another dataset. For the second issue, we introduced a 14-channel EEG commercial headset called the “Emotiv EEG Neuroheadset”. An advantage of the Emotiv headset is that users can put it on by themselves within 1 min without any specific skills. However, only a few studies have investigated whether EEG and ERP signals are accurately measured by Emotiv. Additionally, no electrodes of the Emotiv headset are located over the centroparietal area of the head where P3 components are reported to show large amplitudes. Therefore, we first demonstrated that the P3 components obtained by the headset and by commercial plate electrodes and a multipurpose bioelectric amplifier during an oddball task were comparable. Next, we confirmed that eye-blink and ocular movement components could be decomposed by independent component analysis (ICA) using the 14-channel signals measured by the headset. We also demonstrated that artifacts could be removed with an unmixing matrix, as long as the matrix was obtained from the same person, even if they were measured on different days. Finally, we confirmed that the fluctuation of the sampling frequency of the Emotiv headset was not a major problem.