A P300-based Quantitative Comparison between the Emotiv Epoc Headset and a Medical EEG Device

EEG-based systems have been the most widely used in the field of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) for two decades. Plenty of applications have been proposed from games to rehabilitation systems. Until recently, EEG recording de- vices were too expensive for an end-user. Today, several low-cost alternatives have appeared on the market. The most sophisticated of these low-cost devices is the Emotiv Epoc headset. Some studies reported that this de- vice is suitable for customers in terms of performance. However, none of the previous studies reported to what extent the Emotiv headset is working well compared to a medical system. The aim of this paper is thus to scientifically compare a medical system and the Emotiv Epoc headset by deter- mining their respective performances in the context of a P300 BCI paradigm. In this study, seven healthy subjects performed P300 experiments and two different conditions were studied: sitting on a chair and walking on a treadmill at constant speed. Results show that the Emotiv headset, although able to record EEG data and not only artifacts, is sometimes significantly worse than a medical system. Those results suggest that the design of a specific low-cost EEG recording systems for rehabilitation purposes at a low price is still required.