A Portable, Wireless and Low-cost Electroencephalogram Monitor using Raspberry Pi

Abstract

Portable EEG devices have a great potential to become efficient computer interfaces. However, observing brain activity in real-world settings offers exciting possibilities like the support of physical health, mental well- being, and thought-controlled interaction modalities. The development of such applications is, however, strongly impeded by poor accessibility to research-grade neural data and by a lack of easy-to-use and comfortable    sensors. An integrated system design is described, that combines publicly available electronics components to form an easily replicable, versatile, EEG recording system for prolonged use and easy application development. Most of the commercial EEG monitors in the market does not have wireless connection and usually serially connected with a monitor to display the data collected. A portable, wireless, and low-cost EEG system was developed by using a commercial amplifier Open BCI ganglion and a small single-board computer Raspberry Pi. The objective of this project is to design a portable, wireless, and low-cost EEG monitor, to implement Brain Flow libraries in Raspberry pi, and to display the graphs of real-time EEG, real-time power spectral density, and real-time band power. This system can acquire EEG signals through the electrode, transmit the EEG signal through the amplifier and display the signals in real-time on a touch screen. Based on the results, a mental task was given to the subject which needs concentration, the system was able to detect the targeted band which is beta, and this was supported by a previous study. Finally, the scope of this project has been fulfilled. However, the system designed still has some limitations and has plenty of room for improvement.