Nessi: An EEG-Controlled Web Browser for  
      Severely Paralyzed Patients

Bensch, Michael; Karim, Ahmed A.; Mellinger, Jürgen; Hinterberger, Thilo; Tangermann, Michael; Bogdan, Martin; Rosenstiel, Wolfgang; Birbaumer, Niels

doi:https://doi.org/10.1155/2007/71863

Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience

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Brain-Computer Interfaces: Towards Practical Implementations and Potential Applications

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Research Article | Open Access

Volume 2007 | Article ID 071863 | https://doi.org/10.1155/2007/71863

Nessi: An EEG-Controlled Web Browser for Severely Paralyzed Patients

Michael Bensch,¹Ahmed A. Karim,^2,3Jürgen Mellinger,²Thilo Hinterberger,²Michael Tangermann,⁴Martin Bogdan,^1,5Wolfgang Rosenstiel,¹and Niels Birbaumer^2,6

Academic Editor: Shangkai Gao

Received28 Feb 2007

Accepted26 Jun 2007

Published10 Sept 2007

Abstract

We have previously demonstrated that an EEG-controlled web browser based on self-regulation of slow cortical potentials (SCPs) enables severely paralyzed patients to browse the internet independently of any voluntary muscle control. However, this system had several shortcomings, among them that patients could only browse within a limited number of web pages and had to select links from an alphabetical list, causing problems if the link names were identical or if they were unknown to the user (as in graphical links). Here we describe a new EEG-controlled web browser, called Nessi, which overcomes these shortcomings. In Nessi, the open source browser, Mozilla, was extended by graphical in-place markers, whereby different brain responses correspond to different frame colors placed around selectable items, enabling the user to select any link on a web page. Besides links, other interactive elements are accessible to the user, such as e-mail and virtual keyboards, opening up a wide range of hypertext-based applications.

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Copyright

Copyright © 2007 Michael Bensch et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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