A new online event related potential based brain-computer interfaces using an ensemble classifier

The brain computer interface (BCI) records brain signals, then translates them into commands for control devices for a better quality of life. The event related potential (ERP) has been used to drive the BCIs, but they still have room for improving its performance toward a practical use. In this study we evaluated an online ERP-based BCI system that had an ensemble classifier with overlapped partitioning and a stimulator which provided image intensifications. We also employed and compared four types of visual stimuli: a neutral, a positive, a negative and a traditional gray/white letter stimulus. As a result, ERP-based BCI system with the neutral, the positive and the negative image achieved significantly higher information transfer rate (41.0 ± 2.2 bits per minute at best) than that with the conventional gray/white letter stimulus.