EEG Hero: A Game with a Purpose based Imagined Speech BCI Training Paradigm

Imagined Speech is a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) paradigm that aims at detecting imagined words or sentences from brain activity. This paradigm is particularly useful in contexts where a user may not be able to speak or there is environmental noise impairing the use of audio-based automated speech recognition. However, Imagined Speech BCIs are typically not very robust which may be caused by current training paradigms, which fail to motivate participants and induce boredom, negatively effecting the performance of the system. We propose a Game with a Purpose (GWAP) training paradigm for Imagined Speech as a new engaging alternative to the current cumbersome repetitive procedures. We conducted a study with ten participants to evaluate the GWAP and to prove its feasibility as a training paradigm. Results indicated that participants liked our game design and that it was possible to successfully train the Imagined Speech BCI for 70% of participants, demonstrating the potential of this promising approach, to make Imagined Speech BCI training more engaging and robust in the future.