Application of the Bluetooth Protocol for Data Transfer from Computer to the Brain in Active BCI-Interfaces and Development of the Small Bluetooth Neural Stimulation Device

The technology of active-BCI and computer-controlled neural stimulation is rapidly developing, mostly in animal experiments and preclinical research. However, there are no commercially available portable devices for neural stimulation and no universal protocol for wireless data transfer, that could be used in such experiments. We propose the device, based on the commercially available Bluetooth-modules, that could be adapted for this task. Main component of the proposed small neural stimulator, which can be fixed on laboratory animals' back, is a current source, controlled by the output of Bluetooth-module (Slave). Another module (Master) is connected to the computer and sends commands thru RFCOMM protocol. Experiments with the device prototype show that simple byte-codes sent to the virtual COM-port can directly transmit the waveforms of the trains of impulses, used in experiments with deep brain stimulation. This work shows the potential of using Bluetooth-protocol and widely available Bluetooth-modules for the development of neural stimulation devices.