An online multi-channel SSVEP-based brain-computer interface using a canonical correlation analysis method

In recent years, there has been increasing; interest in using steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) in brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. However, several aspects of current SSVEP-based BCI systems need improvement, specifically in relation to speed, user variation and ease of use. With these improvements in mind, this paper presents an online multi-channel SSVEP-based BCI system using, a canonical correlation analysis (CCA) method for extraction of frequency information associated with the SSVEP. The key parameters, channel location, window length and the number of harmonics, are investigated using; offline data, and the result used to guide the design of the online system. An SSVEP-based BCI system with six targets, which use nine channel locations in the occipital and parietal lobes, a window length of 2 s and the first harmonic, is used for online testing on 12 subjects. The results show that the proposed BCI system has a high performance, achieving an average accuracy of 95.3% and an information transfer rate of 58 +/- 9.6 bit min(-1). The positive characteristics of the proposed system are that channel selection and parameter optimization are not required, the possible use of harmonic frequencies, low user variation and easy setup.