Hardware considerations for brain computer ineterface

[dinasherif]

Hello,

I am kind of new to research in the field of brain computer interface. I don't know if my question is okay to ask here but please I would be really grateful of any help to answer my question. I might have some fund for my research to acquire EEG hardware to use in BCI applications. I still haven't determined which BCI paradigm to use, but most probably a hybrid approach. Also I need the acquired hardware to be suitable for the all the available current paradigms for future work,
My main question is:

What are the most important requirements that I need to check in the EEG amplifier to acquire? What are the questions I need to answer for the specifications in the EEG amplifier? One more question, Does BCI2000 supports the braintronics products?

Thanks,

-- Dina

[gschalk]

Dina,

BCI2000 currently does not support Braintronics products. g.tec sells certified amplifier bundles that include BCI2000, which may be of interest.

Gerv

[dinasherif]

Thanks Gerv for your reply!

Okay then BCI2000 does not support braintronics now ... but still I would like to know the minimum specs I need to consider in the EEG hardware to acquire.
I noticed this huge price gap between some clinical EEGs to research EEGs . I know that clinical EEG systems are closed systems and I can't interface them directly to the BCI2000, but I was wondering why will it be a problem to use a clinical EEG and then interface with the BCI2000 using file operations?
Also I am designing a new stimulus presentation, so can this be a problem in synchronizing my BCI2000 stimulus presentation software and the clinical EEG hardware? what are other possible problems?
I am asking about the clinical EEG because my budget may not be sufficient for say a g.tec amplifier..

-- Dina

[gschalk]

Dina,

Clinical EEG systems usually do not allow for real-time access to the data stream. Thus, they cannot be used for any real-time system, which completely defeats the purpose of using BCI2000, which is made primarily for real-time operation.

The minimum specs completely depend on what you are trying to do. For most application, you would at least need an 8-channel amp.

Gerv