Review Article
The Berlin Brain–Computer Interface: Non-Medical Uses of BCI Technology
Benjamin Blankertz, Michael Tangermann, Carmen Vidaurre, Siamac Fazli, Claudia Sannelli, Stefan Haufe, Cecilia Maeder, Lenny Ramsey, Irene Sturm, Gabriel Curio, Klaus-Robert Müller
Published:
DOI:
10.3389/fnins.2010.00198
License:
Copyright © 2010 Blankertz, Tangermann, Vidaurre, Fazli, Sannelli, Haufe, Maeder, Ramsey, Sturm, Curio and Müller.2010This is an open-access article subject to an exclusive license agreement between the authors and the Frontiers Research Foundation, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.
Abstract
Brain–computer interfacing (BCI) is a steadily growing area of research. While initially BCI research was focused on applications for paralyzed patients, increasingly more alternative applications in healthy human subjects are proposed and investigated. In particular, monitoring of mental states and decoding of covert user states have seen a strong rise of interest. Here, we present some examples of such novel applications which provide evidence for the promising potential of BCI technology for non-medical uses. Furthermore, we discuss distinct methodological improvements required to bring non-medical applications of BCI technology to a diversity of layperson target groups, e.g., ease of use, minimal training, general usability, short control latencies.