Methodology of improving illiteracy in P3 speller system with ICA blind detection

P3 speller is one of the most commonly used paradigm in the field of Brain Computer Interface (BCI). However, due to inherent low signal-to-noise, illiterates of this system remains unsolved. This study proposed a novel approach to overcome illiterates in P3 speller system. P3 speller paradigm with rapid serial visual presentation method was implemented to record single channel Event Related Potentials (ERP) at Fz. 8 laboratory researchers have been asked to count the number of target icon appeared when the icon prompted. Short-time Fourier transformation (STFT) was applied on recorded ERP. ICA blind detection discriminated independent components. The accuracy of system with and without ICA blind detection was compared. The average accuracy of ICA blind detection using Euclidean distance was highest but statistical difference was not found. The number of illiterates also decreased. The study has proven that ICA blind detection can effectively reduce illiterates of BCI system.