Feasibility of “bSports” as an EEG-based Cognitive Training

- A Report on Competitive Fighting using the Robot Avatar -

Abstract

Our goal is to promote brain health through “bSports” (brain-Sports), a form of social sport competition using brain-machine interfaces. As the core technology, we have been developing an electroencephalography-based cognitive training system, “Neurotrainer,” using event-related potential as a virtual “mind switch” to control games. Here, we aimed to assess the performance of the Neurotrainer under competitive conditions between players. Fifteen pairs of healthy adults, including older people with tendency of degrading motor functions, were involved in a one-hour session of 4 games. Each player activated the mind switch to select one of eight pictograms to control his/her robot avatar for its desired action. All players regardless of age performed well at the level of about 85% success rate and reported that they had fun with our body-free technologies. These results suggest that bSports is an effective cognitive training and social activity that can be appreciated by people across all generations.