Combining brain-computer interfaces and haptics: detecting mental workload to adapt haptic assistance

Authors:
Laurent George;Maud Marchal;Loeiz Glondu;Anatole Lécuyer
Affiliations:
INRIA, Rennes, France,INSA, Rennes, France,IRISA, Rennes, France;INRIA, Rennes, France,INSA, Rennes, France,IRISA, Rennes, France;ENS Cachan, Bruz, France,IRISA, Rennes, France;INRIA, Rennes, France,IRISA, Rennes, France
Venue:
EuroHaptics'12 Proceedings of the 2012 international conference on Haptics: perception, devices, mobility, and communication - Volume Part I
Year:
2012

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Abstract

In this paper we introduce the combined use of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) and Haptic interfaces. We propose to adapt haptic guides based on the mental activity measured by a BCI system. This novel approach is illustrated within a proof-of-concept system: haptic guides are toggled during a path-following task thanks to a mental workload index provided by a BCI. The aim of this system is to provide haptic assistance only when the user's brain activity reflects a high mental workload. A user study conducted with 8 participants shows that our proof-of-concept is operational and exploitable. Results show that activation of haptic guides occurs in the most difficult part of the path-following task. Moreover it allows to increase task performance by 53% by activating assistance only 59% of the time. Taken together, these results suggest that BCI could be used to determine when the user needs assistance during haptic interaction and to enable haptic guides accordingly.