Frédéric Dehais is a professor at ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse and a leading researcher in brain-computer interfacing (BCI). Among other projects, he is developing non-intrusive ways to monitor pilots' mental load via brain imaging in collaboration with Airbus Industries. His research is a wonderful combination of signal processing and machine learning with applications in cognitive neuroscience.
Title and abstract of his presentation:
Toward the Development of “Transparent” Brain-Computer Interfaces
The Steady-State Visually Evoked Potentials (SSVEP) refers to the rhythmic activity observed in the occipital cortical areas in response to periodic rapid visual stimulations (RVS). SSVEP responses have been widely used for fundamental research purposes in the field of cognitive neuroscience to investigate overt/covert attention, face processing, reading, and working memory, among others. The rapid onset of the sustained responses and the high discriminability following a single stimulation have also established SSVEPs as a ubiquitous paradigm for the development of reactive Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). Despite their potential benefits, SSVEP paradigms are visually intrusive and distracting for volunteers, potentially leading to decreased task performance and eye strain due to visual fatigue. Moreover, SSVEP-based BCI requires a long and tedious calibration phase for the end-users.
The aim of this talk is to show that it is possible to design innovative visual stimulation to overcome these issues. We will present our latest research, which involves using peri-liminal periodic visual stimuli to investigate attention and vigilance. Furthermore, we will discuss the benefits of using new types of visually comfortable aperiodic visual stimuli in conjunction with convolutional neural networks, which can significantly reduce BCI calibration time, improve classification accuracy, and enhance user experience. Such an approach enables the implementation of transparent and “dual” active-passive BCIs to enhance the symbiotic relationship between humans and machines.
Thursday, April 20, 2023 at 4:30 p.m. in Währinger Str. 29 - SR4.
Frédéric Dehais: scholar.google.fr/citations