EEG Artifacts Handling in a Real Practical Brain-Computer Interface Controlled Vehicle

One of the main issues restricting the practical efficiency of brain-computer interface (BCI) systems is the inevitable occurrence of physiological artifacts during electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. The effects of the artifacts are, however, mostly discarded in practical BCI systems, due to the time-consuming and complicated computational processes. This paper presents the influences of the artifacts and the efficiency of reducing these influences in a practical BCI. Ocular and muscular artifacts are considered due to the high-amplitude and frequent presence. The paradigm is designed based on the mental controlling of a radio-control (RC) car. Two motor imagery commands, containing the imagination of movement of left/right hand, are used to navigate the BCI-based RC car to turn left/right. The results indicate that the artifacts can highly affect the system performance; reducing their influence significantly improves the efficiency.