Continuous tactile feedback for motor-imagery based brain-computer interaction in a multitasking context

Motor-Imagery based Brain Computer Interfaces (MI-BCIs) allow users to interact with computers by imagining limb movements. MI-BCIs are very promising for a wide range of applications as they offer a new and non-time locked modality of control. However, most MI-BCIs involve visual feedback to inform the user about the system’s decisions, which makes them difficult to use when integrated with visual interactive tasks. This paper presents our design and evaluation of a tactile feedback glove for MI-BCIs, which provides a continuously updated tactile feedback. We first determined the best parameters for this tactile feedback and then tested it in a multitasking environment: at the same time users were performing the MI tasks, they were asked to count distracters. Our results suggest that, as compared to an equivalent visual feedback, the use of tactile feedback leads to a higher recognition accuracy of the MI-BCI tasks and fewer errors in counting distracters.