Online BCI systems: cross-subject motor imagery classification based on weighted time-domain feature extraction methods

Abstract

Motor imagery electroencephalogram (MI-EEG) is becoming increasingly important. This paper solves the problem of online signal recognition for motor imagery across subjects by finding common features across multiple subjects to improve the generality of the classification model. We analysed the EEG data from left/right-hand motor imagery of eight subjects and proposed a weighted time-domain (WTD) feature extraction method based on a weighted channel screening method. The classification model constructed by combining this feature extraction method with the support vector machine (SVM) classification method was faster in classification and achieved good cross-subject classification accuracy (The average offline classification accuracy was 91.39%). In this paper, an online control system for asynchronous brain-controlled wheelchairs was built with good performance. The online average motor imagery classification accuracy was 81.67%, and the average response time was 1.36s. This method contributes to bringing the online Brain-computer interface (BCI) system out of the laboratory and into wider application.