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Real time analysis of EEG signals on Android application

Conference Paper · October 2014

DOI: 10.1109/ICAECC.2014.7002387

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Real Time Analysis of EEG Signals on Android
Application
Prabhakara.M
Department of Computer Science
Reva Institute of Technology and Management
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
prabhakara.kolar@gmail.com
Abstract - There is a significant interest in the technology to
detect medical problems in an economical cost. It has become
essential to develop wearable and ambulatory systems for
monitoring and analyzing various biological signals. This work
focuses on development of Android Mobile Application that
reads signals from EEG source and gives an analysis to the
doctor. With this application a detailed health of a patient can be
obtained and it is helpful for further investigation and treatment.
Further this work expands the distribution of the information
obtained to multiple clients using Android device. Use of alert
signals, analysis of patient’s health and Android mobile platform
are the major features of this application.
Keywords— EEG, Signal analysis, Mobile Communication
I. INTRODUCTION
An electro encephalogram [EEG] is a recording of the
voltage potential developed across the human scalp due to
iconic transfer between the neurons of brain cells during its
activity. These potentials are recorded from different regions
of the scalp for which each region has got its own importance
as they depict the neuronal activity at different locations of the
brain. Due to the increased health care costs and aim to
provide quality health care, there is extensive ongoing
research to develop the portable instruments needed to acquire
the signals and transmit them to the automated systems which
constantly monitor patient. The brainwaves measured as
electric activity on the scalp can reveal various information
about a person. Historically, electro encephalogram has been
used in clinical contexts to diagnose a patient in different
areas; including testing for brain death or coma, distinguishing
between epileptic seizures, movement disorders, or headache
variants, or testing for the depth of anesthesia. EEG signals of
an individual are just as unique as fingerprints. The
uniqueness of EEG signals is particularly strong when a
person is exposed to visual stimuli, and therefore cortical area
of the brain on the backside of the head is the best place to
measure brainwaves, related to the visual sense. The brain is a
highly complex and continuously active organ that receives
and processes signals from the body and the environment,
  
Vaishali Kulkarni
Department of Computer Science
Reva Institute of Technology and Management
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
vaishali_kulkarni@ravainstitution.org
generates responses accordingly and recalls the stored
information when it is needed.
The brain activity produces several types of signals,
including electrical, magnetic and metabolic signals. This
activity can be registered using different approaches and EEG
recording is considered to be the fastest. EEG characteristics
are highly dependent on the degree of activity of the cerebral,
which represents a very complex neural wiring and therefore
are unique for each person. The most familiar classification
uses EEG waveform frequency bands (alpha, beta, theta, delta
and gamma waves), which can be decomposed using different
mathematical approaches [1].
In general, EEG signals represent a combination of
waveforms. They are classified according to their frequency,
amplitude, wave morphology, spatial distribution and
reactivity. Real time analysis of the EEG signals is the main
topic of this paper. EEG Headset generates the EEG signals,
generated analog signals will be converted to digital and save
data into the system connected to the EEG Headset. Personal
computer acts as server to the android mobile device. Android
device connect to the server and look for new data, read the
generated EEG data through EEG Headset. This information
is plotted on the android device. The results are analyzed
based on the pre-analysis measurements by android
application.
II. RELATED WORK
One of the earlier ideas about displaying the EEG Signal
on android mobile was presented by Colm seale in 2012 [4],
they presented their idea for mobile detection of seizures.
This work describes the design and implementation of
algorithms for epileptic seizure detection through digital
signal processing of EEG. This is similar to our approach.
Instead of 14 Electrodes there are 3 electrode EEG headset is
used for the signal generation. Further this work aims to use
client server Socket communication for remote data exchange
between the android device and the backend server. This helps
to achieve long distance communication. We have also
 


implemented a functionality to store the history of the data in
dropbox on daily basis. This creates a master database and
only the authenticated users can access the data.

III. DESIGN
In addition to the EEG headset, prototype is divided into
three major parts: Service running on the system acts as a
backend server responsible for storing the EEG data received
from EEG headset [2] windows service developed using java Fig. 2. Anatomy structure of Brain
for client-server socket communication, front-end part located
on Android smartphone, responsible for processing EEG data, TABLE I. Significance of anatomical regions of brain
signal analysis and storage. Storage system is used for storing
the huge amount of collected EEG data in a single secure and
Region Activity
shared location for further analysis. In the following sections
we refer personal computer as back-end, android mobile as Frontal Speech Thought, Emotion, Problem
front-end & Dropbox [8] as storage systems. The overall EEG solving and skilled movements.
signal analysis system architecture from the hardware and Parietal Identifies and interprets sensations such
communication perspective is illustrated in Fig. 1 as touch, pain etc.
Occipital Collects and interprets visual images

Temporal Hearing and storing Memory.

Cerebellum Controls and coordinates familiar

movements.

The EEG headset is used to generate the EEG signals. We

Fig. 1. High Level data flow diagram
have chosen 3 electrode neuro headset used for the
development of our prototype solution. The analog circuitry is
powered using the two 9V batteries and the digital circuit is
powered using two AA batteries of 3V each. The electrodes
are attached to the forehead region of the subject to collect the
EEG signals and are connected to the amplifier [5] input
channels of the analog circuitry on the other end. The output
of the analog circuitry is connected to the analog input pin of
the MSP430BT5190 microcontroller on the digital circuitry
[3]. Output signal feed to the Analog to digital converter,
Fig.3 shows the EEG headset [6] used for signal generation.
Signals are used for the further analysis on android mobile.

A. EEG Headset
Due to ionic transfers during the neuronal activity in brain
cells, an electric potential is developed in the neurons.
Combined voltage potential from multiple neurons can be
measured from different locations of the scalp. This recording
of the neuron potential is referred to as Electroencephalogram.
These potentials depend on the physiological and functional
state of the brain. Brain is the main functional organ in human Fig. 3. EEG Headset
body which controls every action of the body. The brain is
basically divided into left hemisphere and right hemisphere.
The proper hemisphere controls the left side of the body and
performs the activities related to artistic and creative ability B. Back End System
whereas the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body
and performs the activities related to reading, writing, speech Personal computer creates interface between the EEG
and logical thinking. Fig. 2 shows the anatomy structure of the headset and the android device. Generated EEG data saved
brain and table. 1 shows the activity of the each region. into the personal computer, windows service will be
continuously running on the server with the standard port
number for the client requests, designed services accepts
multiple requests from the android device and send response
back to the requested client. Service is used to transfer
received EEG data from EEG headset to the android device.

C. Android Application
This Android application is developed using the Android
software development kit [7] which contains the java files that
perform the algorithm to acquire EEG signal data and plot it in
real time. Once the application is started, all the parameters in
the graphical user interface are initialized to the default values.
To overcome from the limitation of Bluetooth communication
range we have used client server model to exchange the
information between the Android mobile and backend system.
Android app acts as a client connects to the defined host and
known port number. After establishing a connection with the
windows service running on the backend server, service
transfer data to android mobile and plot the signal data as it
acquires from the PC interface. The above said Java programs
are collectively inherited into the development of this
application.

D. Storage
Android mobile collects EEG data from EEG headset, on
daily basis huge amount of data will be saved in the mobile, to
increase the performance of the android device and decrease
the memory usage, data saved into Dropbox [8]. Our
prototype of the system is done using Dropbox. A very
preliminary implementation was done with direct HTTP; we
have chosen to use dropbox due to its reputation of the fault
tolerance and error checking. Dropbox doesn’t limit the
number of users who share single file or folders, data storage
process happens on daily basis the data available in the
android mobile converted to CSV format and saved into the
dropbox. This information is secure and can be shared with
only the authorized users for analysis. This helps to create
central master database of all the patients.
This section describes the EEG headset and android
graphical user interface design which are interfaced to develop
prototype of the system.
The application is developed using java with the user
interface files written in XML. To start the signal analysis
process, user must wear the headset, EEG headset generates
the signals, and analog signals are converted to digital.
Retrieved data from EEG Headset saved into a Backend server
database. Windows service which is running on the system
accepts the input requests from the android mobile clients.
Service handles multiple requests and responds to each client
requests. The software application developed using the
Android software development kit provided by the Android
developer’s website. The application titled as “EEG Signal
Display” is installed on the mobile device which operates on
Android platform. The end to end functionality of the
application is tested with a sample EEG signals received from
headset. Fig. 4 shows the flow chart for data reception on the
android application.
Fig. 4. Flow chart for data reception on Android mobile
The android application has signal reception and signal
display functionality. Fig. 5 shows the Main page of EEG
signal display, it has functionality to retrieve the EEG data, to
view the received EEG signal data which is stored in the
Android SQLite database & data from dropbox and save
retrieved data into the dropbox on daily basis.
Fig. 6 shows the screenshot of the socket service
communication it has a functionality to configure Backend
server’s IP address & Port number of the service which is
listening for the client requests. By clicking on the connect
button android application connect to the service, create a
connection oriented TCP communication between the front
end client and the backend server, after successful connection
establishment android device can retrieve the EEG data
received from the headset with the successive requests. The
received data is stored in the SQLite database and display the
received signals on Real Time basis. The second part of the
android application is to plot the saved data and predict the
results based on the previously analyzed data. Fig. 7 shows the
signal graph of the EEG signals.
On daily basis android device collects the EEG signal data,
to increase the performance of the data display EEG data
saved into the dropbox in CSV format and remove the history
from android device SQLite database, Dropbox user login
page enable application to verify the authenticity of the user.
After successful login, user can view the list of folders and
files created by the user.
 IV. CONCLUSION
This paper demonstrates the development of android
application for real time analysis of EEG signals in the mobile
environment. This project opens up a new area of patient
wearable system for monitoring and analyzing biological
signals. It aims to combine the EEG headset and Android
smartphone technology to sense and process the EEG signals.
Android application “EEG Signal Display” can be installed on
the android based mobiles. An android application connects to
the back end service to extract the generated EEG signals from
the headset and plot the signals. Also it displays results based
on the previously analyzed data and give alerts. This
application can be used in the hospitals to identify the
problems in the early stage, also used to monitor the disabled
and physically challenged patients. A client server model is
Fig. 5. Screenshot of the EEG signal display main page
used for remote communication. Doctors can use this tool to
analyze reports from the remote location to take important
decisions. Analyzed data is stored in dropbox in a secure
manner and it is shared only with the authorized users. Due to
the limitation of the EEG headset a backend system is used to
store data in the intermediate location. In future, this work can
be expanded to develop an inbuilt functional system to have
direct communication with the android device. This eliminates
the use of intermediate backend system.

V. REFERENCES
[1] Xun Chen; Wang, J., "Design and Implementation of a Wearable,
Wireless EEG Recording System," Bioinformatics and Biomedical
Engineering, (iCBBE) 2011 5th International Conference on, vol., no.,
pp.1, 4, 10-12 May 2011.
[2] Drakulic, B.S.; Berry, S.J.; Sterman, M.B., "A portable EEG recording
system," Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 1989. Images of
the Twenty-First Century., Proceedings of the Annual International
Conference of the IEEE Engineering in , vol., no., pp.1395,1396 vol.5,
9-12 Nov 1989.
[3] Saadi, H.; Ferroukhi, M.; Attari, M., "Development of wireless high
immunity EEG recording system," Electronic Devices, Systems and
Fig. 6. Screenshot of the Socket service connection
Applications (ICEDSA), 2011 International Conference on, vol., no.,
pp.120, 124, 25-27 April 2011.
[4] Colm Seale, “Real-Time Processing of EEG Signals for Mobile
Detection of Seizures. “March 2012.
[5] Whitchurch, A.K.; Abraham, J.K.; Lonkar, M.A.; Varadan, Vijay K.,
"Design of a Compact Amplifier and Signal Conditioning Module for
Wireless EEG Monitoring," Region 5 Technical Conference, 2007 IEEE
, vol., no., pp.153,156, 20-22 April 2007.
[6] “Emotive - brain computer interface Technology”. http://emotiv.com.
[7] “Android Developers,” http://developer.android.com/training/index.html
[8] “Dropbox.com,” http://www.dropbox.com.

Fig. 7. Screenshot of the Received signal

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