Noninvasive Electroencephalography Equipment for Assistive, Adaptive, and Rehabilitative Brain–Computer Interfaces: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Humans interact with computers through various devices. Such interactions may not require any physical movement, thus aiding people with severe motor disabilities in communicating with external devices. The brain–computer interface (BCI) has turned into a field involving new elements for assistive and rehabilitative technologies. This systematic literature review (SLR) aims to help BCI investigator and investors to decide which devices to select or which studies to support based on the current market examination. This examination of noninvasive EEG devices is based on published BCI studies in different research areas. In this SLR, the research area of noninvasive BCIs using electroencephalography (EEG) was analyzed by examining the types of equipment used for assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative BCIs. For this SLR, candidate studies were selected from the IEEE digital library, PubMed, Scopus, and ScienceDirect. The inclusion criteria (IC) were limited to studies focusing on applications and devices of the BCI technology. The data used herein were selected using IC and exclusion criteria to ensure quality assessment. The selected articles were divided into four main research areas: education, engineering, entertainment, and medicine. Overall, 238 papers were selected based on IC. Moreover, 28 companies were identified that developed wired and wireless equipment as means of BCI assistive technology. The findings of this review indicate that the implications of using BCIs for assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative technologies are encouraging for people with severe motor disabilities and healthy people. With an increasing number of healthy people using BCIs, other research areas, such as the motivation of players when participating in games or the security of soldiers when observing certain areas, can be studied and collaborated using the BCI technology. However, such BCI systems must be simple (wearable), convenient (sensor fabrics and self-adjusting abilities), and inexpensive.