Introducing the Edges Paradigm: A P300 Brain-Computer Interface for Spelling Written Words

P300-based brain-computer interface spellers employ the P300 component, which is derived from scalp measured electroencephalogram during the brain's electrical response to a flash denoting an attended target character. The most popular P300 speller, the row-column paradigm (RCP), displays characters in a matrix within which rows and columns of characters are flashed eliciting P300 responses when the illuminated row or column contains the attended target character. Despite being a longstanding successful approach, this RCP faces several challenges, including the adjacency and crowding problems. A new P300 speller is introduced-the edges paradigm (EP). Distinct from existing P300 spellers, the EP presents a square adjacent to each column or row in the outer boundary of the matrix. By replacing each flash of a row or column with that square, this EP exhibited attenuated influences of crowding and adjacency-problems known to perturb the RCP. In the copy-spelling mode, 14 neurologically normal participants demonstrated an improved accuracy of 93.3 +/- 2.0% for the EP relative to 81.7 +/- 2.8% for the RCP, alongside a faster communication rate. Subjective ratings also indicated that the EP caused significantly less fatigue, while increasing alertness and comfort.