Driving Persuasive Games with Personal EEG Devices: Strengths and Weaknesses

Recovering from Stroke can be a very long and stressful process. It may involve several months or years of exercise and other medical routines that could be both painful and uninteresting. Most people suffering from stroke tend to lose their basic motor functions and it may take a series of exercises to gain back their full manual dexterity. There is a need for a variety of interventions to make these exercises engaging and exciting, to ease the burden of stroke rehabilitation. This paper explores the possibility of using portable personal electroencephalogram (EEG) devices with persuasive games as a tool for stroke rehabilitation. It looks at the major limitations and strengths of using personal Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) for stroke rehabilitation. The paper also presents the design and development of a Brain-Computer Interface persuasive game called Rock Evaders, that aims to motivate people recovering from stroke to carry out their rehabilitation exercises in an exciting and engaging way.