Abstract
The Computer Brain Interface (BCIs) is a new type of user interface designed to recognize real-time user-specific intentions based on user brain mapping. Gradual advancing technology behind the BCI interface has made it possible to develop gaming applications that use directly brain input instead of well-known traditional control methods. This paper presents the Mental Pool Game, a brain-controlled computer game powered by Unity3D, which uses a commercial BCI device based on a network of electroencephalography (EEG) sensors placed on the scalp capable of creating brain patterns only by capturing conscious thoughts from a user that can be easily reproduced as mental actions to control strength and speed on which the user can project on the white ball to hit any of the eight balls on the pool table. Mental PoolGame, powered by Unity3D, is a platform that provides all tools necessary for a developer to develop three-dimensional games that has been designed so that the end user no longer uses classical commands that depend on the use of well-known peripheral input devices present on any PC, such as a keyboard, mouse and more recently a joystick to control the movement of space in an object in a virtual environment.
Highlights
Over the past decades, there was an exponential improvement in imaging technologies that allow researchers to assess cognitive workload, short-term memory and space / navigational behaviour in humans
Three healthy subjects were first familiarized with Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) headset on how mental patterns were formed based on the acquisition of EEG signals during a training session that involved a training of Neutral and Push mental commands within the software development kit Emotiv Xavier Control Panel. They had 30 seconds to train each mental command within the graphical user interface and in case of training of the Push mental command, during their training session they were asked to visualize the forward movement of a virtual cube, either directly or following a predefined animation and were able to track on top of the interface via a gauge indicator the own cognitive power that was dependent on the level of focus with which they performed the mental task [5]
This paper proposed a 3-dimensional game developed in the Unity3D game engine which has been implemented in accordance with physics laws to reproduce a realistic virtual version of the real game and whose controls can be driven directly by brain using the EEG signal caption from the user through the BCI interface that is able to convert electrical stimuli in binary form based on a script written in C# programming language that used a series of functions designed for mapping mental commands that are provided by Emotiv BCI software development kit in order to convert binary form of signals into keystroke sequences used as control inputs for game play
Summary
There was an exponential improvement in imaging technologies that allow researchers to assess cognitive workload, short-term memory and space / navigational behaviour in humans. Using new experimental paradigms and brain imaging devices, researchers get a deeper insight into neural correlations of emotion, knowledge and motor control. Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) combines two fundamental research areas: Neuroscience and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) that serve as a link bridge that allows users to interact with the computer based on commands transmitted directly from the brain to the standard input of the computer [1]. In order to provide a general overview of sensory, motor and cognitive processes, the BCI system uses the electroencephalogram (EEG) principle to measure electrical activity of the brain, which is diffusely distributed across the scalp and that corresponds to the brainwaves alpha, beta and theta [2]
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