Abstract
More than 300 researchers gathered at the 2013 International Brain-Computer Interface
(BCI) Meeting to discuss current practice and future goals for BCI research and development.
The authors organized the Virtual Users' Forum at the meeting to provide the BCI community
with feedback from users. We report on the Virtual Users' Forum, including initial
results from ongoing research being conducted by 2 BCI groups. Online surveys and
in-person interviews were used to solicit feedback from people with disabilities who
are expert and novice BCI users. For the Virtual Users' Forum, their responses were
organized into 4 major themes: current (non-BCI) communication methods, experiences
with BCI research, challenges of current BCIs, and future BCI developments. Two authors
with severe disabilities gave presentations during the Virtual Users' Forum, and their
comments are integrated with the other results. While participants' hopes for BCIs
of the future remain high, their comments about available systems mirror those made
by consumers about conventional assistive technology. They reflect concerns about
reliability (eg, typing accuracy/speed), utility (eg, applications and the desire
for real-time interactions), ease of use (eg, portability and system setup), and support
(eg, technical support and caregiver training). People with disabilities, as target
users of BCI systems, can provide valuable feedback and input on the development of
BCI as an assistive technology. To this end, participatory action research should
be considered as a valuable methodology for future BCI research.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
AAC (augmentative and alternative communication), BCI (brain-computer interface), OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University), PAR (participatory action research), PTNR (Program for Translational Neurological Research), RSVP (rapid serial visual presentation)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Footnotes
Presented to the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and other organizations (for a full list, see http://bcimeeting.org/2013/sponsors.html), June 3-7, 2013, Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, CA.
Supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (grant nos. 1R01DC009834, R13DC012744, EB00856) and the U.S. Department of Education (National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research) (grant no. H133G090005). Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies.
Disclosures: none.
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
