Navigation in virtual and real environment using brain computer interface:a progress report

Abstract

A brain-computer interface (BCI) facilitates bypassing the peripheral nervous system and directly communicating with surrounding devices. Navigation technology using BCI has developed—from exploring the prototype paradigm in the virtual environment (VE) to accurately completing the locomotion intention of the operator in the form of a powered wheelchair or mobile robot in a real environment. This paper summarizes BCI navigation applications that have been used in both real and VEs in the past 20 years. Horizontal comparisons were conducted between various paradigms applied to BCI and their unique signal-processing methods. Owing to the shift in the control mode from synchronous to asynchronous, the development trend of navigation applications in the VE was also reviewed. The contrast between highlevel commands and low-level commands is introduced as the main line to review the two major applications of BCI navigation in real environments: mobile robots and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Finally, applications of BCI navigation to scenarios outside the laboratory; research challenges, including human factors in navigation application interaction design; and the feasibility of hybrid BCI for BCI navigation are discussed in detail.