Developing a wireless headset with a price tag under 200 pounds that can pick up brain signals with enough sensitivity to diagnose epilepsy or help people with attention deficiency disorder learn more effectively was the mission of a collaboration project organised by a pair of research institutes and Panasonic in Belgium.

 

The result is a wireless electroencephalogram (EEG) headset that can continuously record up to eight EEG signals, developed by Imec in collaboration with Panasonic and the Holst Centre in the Netherlands. The headset, which has just entered the pre-clinical validation phase, is already demonstrating its ability to measure signals closely correlated to the more expensive and bulky wired systems currently used.

The new headset is a refined version of a prototype presented in 2010. Compared to the original prototype, the new model features higher precision, more flexibility and greater ease of use. The new headset also uses active electrodes instead of the previous passive types, allows more electrodes to be added as needed, generates less interference, and does a better job of tracking and correcting motion artefacts.

Image: Imec