State-of-the-art of Wearable EEG for

Personalised Health Applications

Evangelia Balanou, Mark van Gils, Toni Vanhala
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

10th International Conference on Wearable Micro and

Nano Technologies for Personalized Health, Tallinn,
2013

Wearable Sensors
Between 2012 and 2017, wearable health
and fitness device shipments will increase
by 552% [].
From these, 18.2m will be health sensors
with a revenue of $16.3 billion.
From 100 wearable sensors analysed, []
over half are focused on self-management,
prevention and general wellness.
Wearable sensors
Bodymedia
Biovotion VSM platform
FitBit

W/Me wristband
(on Kickstarter)

Firstbeat Bodyguard 2

widespread in sports and fitness

an emerging market for healthcare

mainly focusing on physiological and

behavioural monitoring

new opportunities for mental health

Motivation
In 2010
in EU, 38% of the population is said to be affected by a mental disorder
each year
(Wittchen, H. U., et al. "The size and burden of mental disorders and other disorders of the brain in Europe 2010." European
Neuropsychopharmacology 21.9 (2011): 655-679)

total cost was estimated to be 798 billion

(Olesen, J., et al. "The economic cost of brain disorders in Europe." European Journal of Neurology

19.1 (2012): 155-162)

Within the next 20 years

mental illnesses are expected to cause higher costs than cardiovascular
diseases
(Bloom DE, et al. The global economic burden of noncommunicable diseases. Geneva, Switzerland: World Economic Forum; 2011)

Mental health assessment has relied on subjective measures

Brain Monitoring

Objective, real-time measure for the dynamic mental states of the brain.

EEG (electroencephalography) is the non-invasive recording of the brains

electrical activity with high temporal resolution.

Well-established in clinical practice and research

Golden Standard
Time-consuming

Uncomfortable

Cumbersome

Wet electrodes

Expensive
Constrictive
Experts assistance
arek stopczynski

Only a snapshot of the brain activity

Clinical/laboratory context

What about applications beyond the clinical settings?

Wearable EEG Systems

Increasing interest in wearable EEG devices that provide enable real-world
applications.
Published Items in Each Year

Created June 7, 2013 from Web of Knowledge using (wearable EEG) OR (wearable electroencephalogra*) in the topic in the advanced search options

EEG Systems Evolution

First attempts

Conventional EEG systems

Ambulatory EEG systems

Wearable EEG systems

Key attributes of a wearable EEG device:

Easy to wear

Intuitive / User-friendly

Small, light, head-mounted device

Comfortable

Wireless

Software Development Kit

Dry or non-contact electrodes

Wider application areas

Commercial Systems
OCZ Tech - NIA

Number of dry electrodes varies

Integrated headsets

game controller

Emotiv - Epoc
gaming, lifestyle, potential in assistive living

Mostly fixed setup

Neurosky

Technology provider, consumer application

Many used in research

Price varies

Zeo Headband
Sleep management, wellness

Melon (former Axio)

mobile app that allows users to track their foc

InterAxon - Muse
cognitive and emotional training

EdanSafe Pty Ltd SmartCap

Mindo

fatigue measurement in mining and heavy indu

gaming, BCI

Neuroelectrics - Enobio
brain research, BCI

Quasar DSI 10/20

cognitive states, military applications

ABM B-Alert
cognitive training, sleep research

Non-commercial systems
Not available or prototypes
Specifications not available for all

Neurofocus Mynd
neuromarketing

Neurovigil - iBrain
sleep research, depression, autism

Chi et al., Wireless non-contact cardiac

and neural monitoring, WH 2010

physiological monitoring

Kim, et al.,Helmet-based physiological signal

monitoring system., 2009.

military applications

Tsai, et al, A portable device for real time drowsiness detection

using novel active dry electrode system., EMBC 2009.

imec
Body Area Network, physiological monitoring

drowsiness detection

Neurokeeper
Wang, et al., A cell-phone-based brain-computer interface for
communication in daily life., Journal of neural engineering, 2011.

BCI

stroke patients

OPTIMI

mental disorders

Real-world Applications
Affective

Wellness

neuromarketing
mental disorders
stroke patients
physiological monitoring

sleep research, depression, autism

Sleep management, wellness

Mental Health
Disorders

Physical
Health
BCI

BCI

Body Area Network, physiological

monitoring

cognitive training, sleep research

Mental State
Monitoring
brain research, BCI

game controller

gaming, BCI

cognitive states, military applications

Technology provider, consumer applications

fatigue measurement in mining and heavy

industry
focus
military applications

gaming, lifestyle, potential in assistive living

Gaming

cognitive, emotional training

Lifestyle

drowsiness detection

Current Work
Focus on the signal quality acquired by a commercial wearable EEG
device and on whether the study can provide indications that EEG
features are related to different levels of mental workload
Working memory is a suitable indicator of mental workload in office
scenarios
Pilot study / 8 subjects

Setup

Training
session

Auxiliary

Relax
(eyes
closed)

Rest
(eyes
open)

Memory
Task

Selfreport

Memory
Task

Selfreport

Reading
Task

Selfreport

Reading
Task

Selfreport

10

15

END

Challenges
Technical challenges
Design for functionality and appearance
Compatibility with other sensors and integration into systems for
multi-modal analysis and contextual interpretation
Evaluation studies
Algorithms
Multi-disciplinary teams
Move from technology to applications

Conclusions

Wearable EEG systems have broken out of

the laboratory into the wild

The field will continue to expand quickly as

new devices are introduced

Wearable EEG devices open the way for

scientific and clinical research in real-life
settings and for self-tracking

Wearable EEG devices may prove to be an

integral part of future pervasive, ubiquitous
and person-centered health care delivery.

Thank you