Dry and Water-Based EEG Electrodes in SSVEP-Based BCI Applications

This paper evaluates whether water-based and dry contact electrode solutions can replace the gel ones in measuring electrical brain activity by the electroencephalogram (EEG). The quality of the signals measured by three setups (dry, water, and gel), each using 8 electrodes, is estimated for the case of a brain-computer interface (BCI) based on steady state visual evoked potential (SSVEP). Repetitive visual stimuli in the low (12 to 21Hz) and high (28 to 40Hz) frequency ranges were applied. Six people, that had different hair length and type, participated in the experiment. For people with shorter hair style the performance of water-based and dry electrodes comes close to the gel ones in the optimal setting. On average, the classification accuracy of 0.63 for dry and 0.88 for water-based electrodes is achieved, compared to the 0.96 obtained for gel electrodes. The theoretical maximum of the average information transfer rate across participants was 23bpm for dry, 38bpm for water-based and 67bpm for gel electrodes. Furthermore, the convenience level of all three setups was seen as comparable. These results demonstrate that, having optimized headset and electrode design, dry and water-based electrodes can replace gel ones in BCI applications where lower communication speed is acceptable.

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