A Synopsis Report on

“Brain-Computer Interface”

Submitted to

Department Of Computer Science & Engineering

As Per University of DBATU Curriculum

BY

Akshay Sukhdev Yele

(Roll no. 32)

Under Guidance of

Prof. Miss. Minal Sonmale

YSPM’S

Yashoda Technical Campus, Satara

Academic Year 2019-20

 Title page:

a. Name of Student : Akshay Sukhdev Yele

Roll No : 32

b. Address : A/p Gharniki , Tal- Atpadi , Dist- Sangli,

E-mail : akshree140999@gmail.com
Mobile no : 8888082830

c. Branch : Computer Science Engineering

d. Session :

e. Name of Guide : Miss. Minal Sonmale.

f. Seminar Topic: “Brain-Computer Interface”

g. Name of Department/College : Yashoda Technical Campus , Satara

Introduction, Objectives and scope :
 What is the BCI ?
Brain Computer Interface (BCI) technology is a powerful communication tool
between users and systems. It does not require any external devices or muscle intervention to issue
commands and complete the interaction . The research community has initially developed BCIs
with biomedical applications in mind, leading to the generation of assistive devices . Brain-
Computer interfaces (BCIs) hold promise for the restoration of sensory and motor function and the
treatment of neurological disorders, but clinical BCIs have not yet been widely adopted, in part
because modest channel counts have limited their potential. In this white paper, we describe
Neuralink’s first steps toward a scalable high-bandwidth BCI system.
Computer-brain interfaces are designed to restore sensory function, transmit sensory
information to the brain, or stimulate the brain through artificially generated electrical signals .
Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are systems that allow communication between the brain and
various machines. Thus BCI extracts electro-physical signals from suitable components of the brain
and process them to generate control signals for computers, robotic machines or communication
devices . “ A Brain-Computer Interface is a communication system that do not depend on peripheral
nerves and muscles “. They work in three main steps as follows :
1. collecting brain signals
2. interpreting the received signals.
3. outputting commands to a connected machine according to the brain signal received.

 What are the types of BCI’s ?

 Non invasive: The sensors are placed on the scalp to measure the electrical potentials produced
by the brain (EEG) or the magnetic field (MEG).
 Semi invasive: The electrodes are placed on the exposed surface of the brain.
 Invasive : The micro-electrodes are placed directly into the cortex, measuring the activity of a
single neuron.

 History of BCI :
1924 : Hans Berger discovers the EEG Analyses the interrelation of EEG and brain diseases.
1970: First developments to use brain waves as input . ARPA has vision of enhanced human .
First step in the right direction.
1990: First successful experiments with monkeys. Implanting electrode arrays into monkey
brains. Recording of monkeys„ brain waves.
2000: Monkeys control robots by thoughts .
2004: First human benefits from research .

 Objectives:
Brain computer interfaces have contributed in various fields of research . they are
involved in medical, neuroergonomics and smart environment, neuromarketing and advertisement,
educational and self-regulation, games and entertainment, and Security and authentication fields .
 Motivation for Patients: is to give disable people to communicate, to operate prostheses, and
even to operate wheelchairs using brain signals . Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have the
potential to help people with a wide range of clinical disorders.
Example: Stephen Hawking
Since 1997, Stephen Hawking’s computer-based communication system has been
sponsored and provided by Intel® Corporation. A tablet computer mounted on the arm of his
wheelchair is powered by my wheelchair batteries, although the tablets internal battery will keep the
computer running if necessary.
 Berlin Brain-Computer-Interface
 Joint Venture of several German research organisations .
 Supported by the Ministry of Education and Research .

 Graz Brain-Computer-Interface
 Wide range of research topics
 Impressive combination of BCI and FES (Functional Electrical Stimulation)

 Virtual Reality
 P300 based BCI system smart home application.
 Cyborg (Kevin Warwick – The First Human Cyborg )
 CYBORG is a combination between man and machine . Used to repair or overcome physical
and mental constraints .
 Cyborgs are considered as the next step of human evolution…Different from a robot .

 Bionic Eye:
 Bionic Vision Australia (BVA) is a consortium of world-leading Australian researchers,
collaborating to develop an advanced bionic eye.
 The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital is the clinical partner of the BVA collaboration
and is the planned site for the first retinal implant.
 It uses a retinal implant connected to a video camera to convert images into electrical
impulses that activate remaining retinal cells which then carry the signal back to the brain.

 Future Scope

As BCI technology is growing in many medical or non-medicals applications, this

rapid growth make BCI field ubiquitous. In future BCIs would be simpler to use and less train-ing
time leads less to user effort, while enabling faster and more accurate decoding of users’
intentions. As application area is expanding very fast, privacy and security should be considered
with legal and defined standards and protocols to mitigate the threats associated with BCI design.
More secure transceivers and use of anonymizer either in hardware or software form can prevent
user’s privacy with a great intent. Also researchers from multidisciplinary involving neuroscientists,
neural engineers, ethicists, as well as legal, privacy and security experts should participate towards
preserving user’s data safety. DARPA has announces the Next-Generation Non-surgical
Neurotechnology program aims to develop high-performance, bi-directional brain-machine
interfaces for ablebodied service members. Such interfaces would be enabling technology for
diverse national security applications such as control of unmanned aerial vehicles and active cyber
defense systems or teaming with computer systems to successfully multitask during complex
military missions. This opens many opportunities in research in the area of BCI .
Security Mechanisms:

 Secuirity issues in BCI applications:

Medical or non-medical BCI application can be affected by possible attacks. These

attacks could be either doable and envisage to be possible in near future. In medical application, to
collect raw neural signals of a user wired/wireless devices are in use and data is available to the
concerned medical facility. An attacker can easily exploit the measuring devices to alter, block, or
snoop in neural signals. The attacker can intercept the data and can use it to take decision on behalf
of user of BCI system (Denning and Kohno, 2009). For example, in prosthetic limb attacker can
illicit the commands and can give wrong movement to particular limb. Further, attack on the
authentication devices using EEG signals could result in the breach of privacy of the user. A
personal authentication using biometric machine using EEG signals proposed by author of (Marcel,
Millan, 2007) is an example of use of brain waves in authentication process. A foe can make a
model based on synthetic brain waves or historical data and can use it for forging the
authentication of a user (Steller, 1999). Many BCI based games are available in the market e.g.
P300 based mind game etc. Like P300 speller they have matrix of alphanumeric characters and
row and columns are flashed on the screen. User has to choose one letter for the spelled word just
by seeing on the screen. A P300 peak has been detected and used to play the game. BCI games
depend upon the common APIs on the running device. The unrestricted access provided to APIs
open ways to unrestricted access to raw brain waves. Attackers can analyze this data and can use
it to do damage to user. Also games have full control over stimuli that result into vulnerable raw
brain waves of the user. A brain spyware introduced by (Martinovic, Davies, Frank, Perito,
Ros, Song, 2011) is an example which demon strate that using a BCI game an attacker can
extract information like PIN number, date of birth, location etc. The brain waves of users of smart
phone applications based on BCI are also vulnerable like BCI game users. Again an attacker can
used the intentional/unintentional information embedded into the brain signals. The use of BCI
devices on public internet can be another threat for BCI users.
 Types of Attackers :

Based on the way of analysis of acquired data different type of attackers can be
identified. First type of attackers exploits the feature extraction and classification algorithms used in
different BCI applications. The goal may be achieved by
1. adding more artifacts to make decoding more difficult,
2. overriding the BCI output,
3. corrupting the classification algorithms.
The second type of attackers exploits the private information by exploiting brain activity in response
to visual stimuli which is not intentionally perceived by user (Frank, 2017). Oddball paradigm,
guilty knowledge test, priming are some existing methods for extracting private information.
Even encrypted data can also be attacked. This type of attacker gain information while
measurement of signals and generate the outputs Special Issue based on proceedings of 4th
International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS) 2018Emokit project, developed by the hacker
Cody Brocious is a practical example of this type of attacks. The third type of
attackers focus on altering the feedback perceived by the uasers. The purpose for this type attack
is inducing unwanted cognitive states or outputs for the advantage of attacker.

 BCI innovators:

 PIONEERS
 NASA
 CYBERKINETICS NEUROTECHNOLOGY SYSTEM
 JAPANESE REASERCH TEAM

 Advantages:

 Allow paralyzed people to control prosthetic limbs with their mind

 Transmit visual images to the mind of a blind person, allowing them to see
 Transmit auditory data to the mind of a deaf person, allowing them to hear
 Allow gamers to control video games with their minds

 Disadvantages:

 Research is still in beginning stages

 The current technology is crude
 Ethical issues may prevent its development
 Electrodes outside of the skull can detect very few electric signals from the brain
 Electrodes placed inside the skull create scar tissue in the brain
 Drawbacks :
 The brain is incredibly complex. To say that all thoughts or actions are the result of simple
electric signals in the brain is a gross understatement. There are about 100 billion neurons in a
human brain. Each neuron is constantly sending and receiving signals through a complex web of
connections. There are chemical processes involved as well, which EEGs can't pick up on.
 The signal is weak and prone to interference. EEGs measure tiny voltage potentials. Something
as simple as the blinking eyelids of the subject can generate much stronger signals. Refinements
in EEGs and implants will probably overcome this problem to some extent in the future, but for
now, reading brain signals is like listening to a bad phone connection. There's lots of static.
 The equipment is less than portable. It's far better than it used to be -- early systems were
hardwired to massive mainframe computers. But some BCIs still require a wired connection to
the equipment, and those that are wireless require the subject to carry a computer that can weigh
around 10 pounds. Like all technology, this will surely become lighter and more wireless in the
future.

Conclusion:
 A potential therapeutic tool.
 BCI is an advancing technology promising paradigm shift in areas like Machine Control, Human
Enhancement, Virtual reality and etc. So, it’s potentially high impact technology.
 Several potential applications of BCI hold promise for rehabilitation and improving performance,
such as treating emotional disorders (for example, depression or anxiety), easing chronic pain,
and
 overcoming movement disabilities due to stroke.
 Will enable us to achieve singularity very soon
 Intense R&D in future to attain intuitive efficiency
 Enables people to communicate and control appliances with use of brain signals
 Open gates for disabled people.
 Development of new brain imagining techniques
 Numerous future applications

Bibliography (References)
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain%E2%80%93computer_interface
 https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6204648-Neuralink-White-Paper.html
 https://www.academia.edu/40382443/Brain_Computer_Interface_BCI_
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/37452383_Recent_Advances_in_Brain-
Computer_Interfaces
 https://hal.inria.fr/hal-01656743/document