Turning a Raspberry Pi Into a Brain-Computer Interface? Researchers Open-Source the Low-Cost, High-Precision PIEEG

Most AI researchers agree the trusty keyboard will not be the preferred human-machine interface of the future. While smart device-based voice interfaces are now increasingly popular, direct, brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have tremendous potential in terms of speed and efficiency, with possible applications in neuroscience research, medical devices, and even videogames. There are many challenges in enabling BCI as an everyday means of human-computer interaction, one of which is maintaining high precision while reducing device cost.

In the new paper PIEEG: Turn a Raspberry Pi into a Brain-Computer-Interface to Measure Biosignals, PhD electronic researcher Ildar Rakhmatulin and brain-computer interface developer Sebastian Völkl tackle this challenge, open-sourcing an inexpensive, high-precision, easy-to-maintain PIEEG board that converts a Raspberry Pi into a BCI for measuring and processing eight real-time EEG (electroencephalography) signals.

Although BCI research has been promising, the ongoing global chip shortage has increased the cost of ICs and set back the development of full-fledged BCI devices. The researchers also struggled to find software for signal processing in the current market, forcing them to look elsewhere…