Developing brain-body interfaces for the visually impaired

In comparison to all types of injury, those to the brain are among the most likely to result in death or permanent disability. This group of individuals with severe head injury has received little from assistive technology. A certain percentage of these brain-injured people cannot communicate, recreate, or control their environment due to severe motor impairment. Brain-computer interfaces have opened up a spectrum of assistive technologies, which are particularly appropriate for people with traumatic brain injury, especially those who suffer from “locked-in” syndrome. Previous research in this area developed brain-body interfaces so that this group of brain-injured people can communicate, recreate and launch applications communicate using computers despite the severity of their brain injury, except for visually impaired and comatose participants. This paper reports on an exploratory investigation carried out with visually impaired using facial muscles or electromyography (EMG) to communicate using brain-body interfaces. Seven out of eight visually impaired participants were able to communicate the interface developed in this research