A Wireless EEG Acquisition Platform based on Embedded Systems

F. Pinho, J. H. Correia, N. S. Dias

2013

Abstract

This paper proposes a wireless EEG acquisition platform based on Open Multimedia Architecture Platform (OMAP) embedded system. A high-impedance active dry electrode was tested for improving the scalp-electrode interface. It was used the sigma-delta ADS1298 analog-to-digital converter, and developed a “kernelspace” character driver to manage the communications between the converter unit and the OMAP’s ARM core. The acquired EEG signal data is processed by a “userspace” application, which accesses the driver’s memory, saves the data to a SD-card and transmits them through a wireless TCP/IP-socket to a PC. The electrodes were tested through the alpha wave replacement phenomenon. The experimental results presented the expected alpha rhythm (8-13 Hz) reactiveness to the eyes opening task. The driver spends about 725 μs to acquire and store the data samples. The application takes about 244 μs to get the data from the driver and 1.4 ms to save it in the SD-card. A WiFi throughput of 12.8Mbps was measured which results in a transmission time of 5 ms for 512 kb of data. The embedded system consumes about 200 mAh when wireless off and 400 mAh when it is on. The system exhibits a reliable performance to record EEG signals and transmit them wirelessly. Besides the microcontroller-based architectures, the proposed platform demonstrates that powerful ARM processors running embedded operating systems can be programmed with real-time constrains at the kernel level in order to control hardware, while maintaining their parallel processing abilities in high level software applications.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Pinho F., Correia J. and Dias N. (2013). A Wireless EEG Acquisition Platform based on Embedded Systems . In Proceedings of the International Conference on Biomedical Electronics and Devices - Volume 1: BIODEVICES, (BIOSTEC 2013) ISBN 978-989-8565-34-1, pages 190-196. DOI: 10.5220/0004325601900196

in Bibtex Style

@conference{biodevices13,
author={F. Pinho and J. H. Correia and N. S. Dias},
title={A Wireless EEG Acquisition Platform based on Embedded Systems},
booktitle={Proceedings of the International Conference on Biomedical Electronics and Devices - Volume 1: BIODEVICES, (BIOSTEC 2013)},
year={2013},
pages={190-196},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004325601900196},
isbn={978-989-8565-34-1},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the International Conference on Biomedical Electronics and Devices - Volume 1: BIODEVICES, (BIOSTEC 2013)
TI - A Wireless EEG Acquisition Platform based on Embedded Systems
SN - 978-989-8565-34-1
AU - Pinho F.
AU - Correia J.
AU - Dias N.
PY - 2013
SP - 190
EP - 196
DO - 10.5220/0004325601900196