A user-friendly SSVEP-based BCI using imperceptible phase-coded flickers at 60Hz

A brain-computer interface (BCI) system based on steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) was developed by four-class phase-coded stimuli. SSVEPs elicited by flickers at 60Hz, which is higher than the critical fusion frequency (CFF), were compared with those at 15Hz and 30Hz. SSVEP components in electroencephalogram (EEG) were detected using task related component analysis (TRCA) method. Offline analysis with 17 subjects indicated that the highest information transfer rate (ITR) was 29.80±4.65bpm with 0.5s data length for 60Hz and the classification accuracy was 70.07±4.15%. The online BCI system reached an averaged classification accuracy of 87.75±3.50% at 60Hz with 4s, resulting in an ITR of 16.73±1.63bpm. In particular, the maximum ITR for a subject was 80bpm with 0.5s at 60Hz. Although the BCI performance of 60Hz was lower than that of 15Hz and 30Hz, the results of the behavioral test indicated that, with no perception of flicker, the BCI system with 60Hz was more comfortable to use than 15Hz and 30Hz. Correlation analysis revealed that SSVEP with higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) corresponded to better classification performance and the improvement in comfortableness was accompanied by a decrease in performance. This study demonstrates the feasibility and potential of a user-friendly SSVEP-based BCI using imperceptible flickers.