Objective: Recent advances in development of low-cost single-channel electroencephalography (EEG) headbands have opened new possibilities for applications in health monitoring and brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. These recorded EEG signals, however, are often contaminated by eye blink artifacts that can yield the fallacious interpretation of the brain activity. This paper proposes an efficient algorithm, VME-DWT, to remove eye blinks in a short segment of the single EEG channel. Method: The proposed algorithm: (a) locates eye blink intervals using Variational Mode Extraction (VME) and (b) filters only contaminated EEG interval using an automatic Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) algorithm. The performance of VME-DWT is compared with an automatic Variational Mode Decomposition (AVMD) and a DWT-based algorithms, proposed for suppressing eye blinks in a short segment of the single EEG channel. Results: The VME-DWT detects and filters 95% of the eye blinks from the contaminated EEG signals with SNR ranging from -8 to +3 dB. The VME-DWT shows superiority to the AVMD and DWT with the higher mean value of correlation coefficient (0.92 vs. 0.83, 0.58) and lower mean value of RRMSE (0.42 vs. 0.59, 0.87). Significance: The VME-DWT can be a suitable algorithm for removal of eye blinks in low-cost single-channel EEG systems as it is: (a) computationally-efficient, the contaminated EEG signal is filtered in millisecond time resolution, (b) automatic, no human intervention is required, (c) low-invasive, EEG intervals without contamination remained unaltered, and (d) low-complexity, without need to the artifact reference.

Objective: Blink-related features derived from electroencephalography (EEG) have recently arisen as a meaningful measure of drivers cognitive state. Combined with band power features of low-channel prefrontal EEG data, blink-derived features enhance the detection of driver drowsiness. Yet, it remains unanswered whether synergy of combined blink and EEG band power features for the detection of driver drowsiness may be further boosted if a proper eye blink removal is also applied before EEG analysis. This paper proposes an algorithm for simultaneous eye blink feature extraction and elimination from low-channel prefrontal EEG data. Methods: Firstly, eye blink intervals (EBIs) are identified from the Fp1 EEG channel using variational mode extraction, and then blink-related features are derived. Secondly, the identified EBIs are projected to the rest of EEG channels and then filtered by a combination of principal component analysis and discrete wavelet transform. Thirdly, a support vector machine with 10-fold cross-validation is employed to classify alert and drowsy states from the derived blink and filtered EEG band power features. Main results: When compared the synergy of eye blink and EEG features before and after filtering by the proposed algorithm, a significant improvement in the mean accuracy of driver drowsiness detection was achieved (71.2% vs. 78.1%, p<0.05). Significance: This paper validates a novel view of eye blinks as both a source of information and artifacts in EEG-based driver drowsiness detection.

Objective : The driver fatigue detection using multi-channel electroencephalography (EEG) has been extensively addressed in the literature. However, the employment of a single prefrontal EEG channel should be prioritized as it provides users with more comfort. Furthermore, eye blinks from such channel can be analyzed as the complementary information. Here, we present a new driver fatigue detection method based on simultaneous EEG and eye blinks analysis using an Fp1 EEG channel. Methods : First, the moving standard deviation algorithm identifies eye blink intervals (EBIs) to extract blink-related features. Second, the discrete wavelet transform filters the EBIs from the EEG signal. Third, the filtered EEG signal is decomposed into sub-bands, and various linear and nonlinear features are extracted. Finally, the prominent features are selected by the neighbourhood components analysis and fed to a classifier to discriminate between fatigue and alert driving. In this paper, two different databases are investigated. The first one is used for parameters’ tuning of proposed method for the eye blink detection and filtering, nonlinear EEG measures, and feature selection. The second one is solely used for testing the robustness of the tuned parameters. Main results : The comparison between the obtained results from both databases by the AdaBoost classifier in terms of sensitivity (90.2% vs. 87.4%), specificity (87.7% vs. 85.5%), and accuracy (88.4% vs. 86.8%) indicates the reliability of the proposed method for the driver fatigue detection. Significance : Considering the existence of commercial single prefrontal channel EEG headbands, the proposed method can be used to detect the driver fatigue in real-world scenarios.

Objectives: Helping patients suffering from serious neurological diseases that lead to hindering the independent movement is of high social importance and an interdisciplinary challenge for engineers. Brain–computer interface (BCI) interfaces based on the electroencephalography (EEG) signal are not easy to use as they require time consuming multiple electrodes montage. We aimed to contribute in bringing BCI systems outside the laboratories so that it could be more accessible to patients, by designing a wheelchair fully controlled by an algorithm using alpha waves and only a few electrodes. Methods: The set of eight binary words are designed, that allow to move forward, backward, turn right and left, rotate 45° as well as to increase and decrease the speed of the wheelchair. Our project includes: development of a mobile application which is used as a graphical user interface, real-time signal processing of the EEG signal, development of electric wheelchair engines control system and mechanical construction. Results: The average sensitivity, without training, was 79.58% and specificity 97.08%, on persons who had no previous contact with BCI. Conclusions: The proposed system can be helpful for people suffering from incurable diseases that make them closed in their bodies and for whom communication with the surrounding world is almost impossible.

Flicker-noise spectroscopy (FNS) is a general phenomenological approach to analyzing dynamics of complex nonlinear systems by extracting information contained in chaotic signals. The main idea of FNS is to describe an information hidden in correlation links, which are present in the chaotic component of the signal, by a set of parameters. In the paper, FNS is used for the analysis of electroencephalography signal related to the hand movement imagination. The signal has been parametrized in accordance with the FNS method, and significant changes in the FNS parameters have been observed, at the time when the subject imagines the movement. For the right-hand movement imagination, abrupt changes (visible as a peak) of the parameters, calculated for the data recorded from the left hemisphere, appear at the time corresponding to the initial moment of the imagination. In contrary, for the left-hand movement imagination, the meaningful changes in the parameters are observed for the data recorded from the right hemisphere. As the motor cortex is activated mainly contralaterally to the hand, the analysis of the FNS parameters allows to distinguish between the imagination of the right- and left-hand movement. This opens its potential application in the brain–computer interface.

Objectives : Commercial systems for monitoring the depth of anesthesia (DoA) are often financially inaccessible to developing countries. As an alternative, a wearable single frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) device can be utilized. Nonetheless, most studies addressing DoA monitoring utilizing just one frontal EEG channel rely on nonlinear features that require parameter tuning before computation, overlooking the potential interchangeability of such features across different databases. Methods : Here, we present a parameter-free feature set for DoA monitoring using a single frontal EEG channel and evaluate its performance on two databases with different characteristics. First, the EEG signal is de-noised and split into its sub-bands. Second, several parameter-free features based on entropy, power and frequency, fractal, and variation are extracted from all sub-bands. Finally, the distinguished features are chosen and input into a random forest regressor to estimate the DoA index values. Results : The reliability of the proposed feature set for the DoA monitoring is indicated by achieving a comparable correlation coefficient of 0.80 and 0.79 and mean absolute error of 7.1 and 9.0 between the reference and estimated DoA index values for Databases I and II, respectively. Significance : The obtained results from this study confirm the possibility of affordable DoA monitoring using a portable EEG system. Given its simplicity and comparable results for both databases, the proposed feature set holds promise for practical application in real-world scenarios.