A novel bio-signal acquisition system for brain computer interfaces

The aim of this paper is to present the newly developed electro-technological and signal processing ideas that can provide an improved brain-computer interface (BCI) system with significant advance in its performance. A BCI system allows to record bio-signals. Technologies based on the information extracted from these bio-signals are able to act on the environment. The brain activity can be used to control systems from the technical surroundings. Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are the recorded potentials of collective activity of synchronized cortical cell populations chained to an external system. Our basic tasks are to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and to solve spatial and temporal actions of the measured signals on the external environment. For these reasons we propose a completely new concept of active electrodes, named Smart Active Electrodes (SAE).