Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine
Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 750934, 9 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/750934
Research Article

A Hybrid Brain-Computer Interface-Based Mail Client

Tianyou Yu,1 Yuanqing Li,1 Jinyi Long,1 and Feng Li2

1School of Automation Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
2School of Computer and Communication Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410114, China

Received 22 January 2013; Accepted 1 April 2013

Academic Editor: Dewen Hu

Copyright © 2013 Tianyou Yu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Brain-computer interface-based communication plays an important role in brain-computer interface (BCI) applications; electronic mail is one of the most common communication tools. In this study, we propose a hybrid BCI-based mail client that implements electronic mail communication by means of real-time classification of multimodal features extracted from scalp electroencephalography (EEG). With this BCI mail client, users can receive, read, write, and attach files to their mail. Using a BCI mouse that utilizes hybrid brain signals, that is, motor imagery and P300 potential, the user can select and activate the function keys and links on the mail client graphical user interface (GUI). An adaptive P300 speller is employed for text input. The system has been tested with 6 subjects, and the experimental results validate the efficacy of the proposed method.