The smartphone brain scanner: a portable real-time neuroimaging system.

Combining low-cost wireless EEG sensors with smartphones offers novel opportunities for mobile brain imaging in an everyday context. Here we present the technical details and validation of a framework for building multi-platform, portable EEG applications with real-time 3D source reconstruction. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Arkadiusz Stopczynski, Carsten Stahlhut, Jakob Eg Larsen, Michael Kai Petersen, Lars Kai Hansen
Format: article
Language:EN
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
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Online Access:https://doaj.org/article/f2b1a4a74f5541dc8ab8b9ffad6437aa
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Summary:Combining low-cost wireless EEG sensors with smartphones offers novel opportunities for mobile brain imaging in an everyday context. Here we present the technical details and validation of a framework for building multi-platform, portable EEG applications with real-time 3D source reconstruction. The system--Smartphone Brain Scanner--combines an off-the-shelf neuroheadset or EEG cap with a smartphone or tablet, and as such represents the first fully portable system for real-time 3D EEG imaging. We discuss the benefits and challenges, including technical limitations as well as details of real-time reconstruction of 3D images of brain activity. We present examples of brain activity captured in a simple experiment involving imagined finger tapping, which shows that the acquired signal in a relevant brain region is similar to that obtained with standard EEG lab equipment. Although the quality of the signal in a mobile solution using an off-the-shelf consumer neuroheadset is lower than the signal obtained using high-density standard EEG equipment, we propose mobile application development may offset the disadvantages and provide completely new opportunities for neuroimaging in natural settings.