Categories
Uncategorized

BANANA visit in Torun (PL)

Prof. Aleksandra Kawala-Sterniuk from the BANANA team, Polish partner, visited on 14-16.06.2023 Torun.

She met Polish-PI and her team from BITSCOPE (Brain Integrated Tagging for Socially Curated Online Personalised Experiences) – prof. Veslava Osinska from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (Poland).

BITSCOPE introduces a vision for enhancing social relationships through brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) in virtual environments. Instead of relying on explicit feedback like “likes,” our improved BCI technology captures attention, memorability, and curiosity by passively collecting neural data signatures. This data, refined through machine learning, can be used by recommender systems to create better online experiences. Our work focuses on developing a passive hybrid BCI (phBCI) that combines electroencephalography, eye tracking, galvanic skin response, heart rate, and movement to estimate the user’s mental state without interrupting their immersion. This approach improves signal quality, denoising capabilities, and adaptability to home environments. We leverage deep learning, geometrical approaches, and large datasets to address user state classification, including attention, curiosity, and memorability. These advancements are achieved through co-designed user-centered experiments.

BITSCOPE partners:

  • Dublin City University – Ireland (Coordinator)
  • Universitat Politècnica de València – Spain
  • Centre de Recherche Inria Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest – France
  • Nicolaus Copernicus University – Poland

She and Dariusz Mikolajewski (Co-PI, OUT) also had a pleasure to meet prof. Dean J. Krusienski from VCU, leader of the ASPEN Lab.

Dean J. Krusienski, a Senior Member of IEEE, obtained his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA. He conducted his Postdoctoral Research at the Brain-Computer Interface Laboratory, Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health. Currently, he holds the position of Professor and Graduate Program Director of biomedical engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Richmond, VA, USA. Additionally, he directs the Advanced Signal Processing in Engineering and Neuroscience (ASPEN) Laboratory at VCU. His research interests encompass biomedical signal processing, machine learning, brain-computer interfaces, and neural engineering.

Aleksandra and Dariusz also spoke to prof. Wlodzislaw Duch.

Wlodzislaw Duch is a distinguished figure in neuroinformatics and artificial intelligence. He heads the Neurocognitive Laboratory at the Center of Modern Interdisciplinary Technologies and leads the Neuroinformatics and Artificial Intelligence group at the University Centre of Excellence Dynamics, Mathematical Analysis, and Artificial Intelligence. With a Ph.D. in theoretical physics/quantum chemistry and a D.Sc. in applied math, Duch has made significant contributions to the field. He has held prestigious positions, including the President of the European Neural Networks Society executive committee and fellowships in renowned international associations. Duch has an extensive publication record, authored books, and served on the editorial boards of numerous journals. Additionally, he has held visiting professor positions at esteemed institutions worldwide.

We are looking forward for further cooperation! 🙂

Categories
Uncategorized

AI- and ML-based methods in BCI systems


Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) enable direct and bidirectional communication between the human brain and computers. The analysis and interpretation of brain signals, which provide valuable information about mental state and brain activity, pose challenges due to their non-stationarity and vulnerability to various interferences. Consequently, research in the BCI field emphasizes the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in five key areas: calibration, noise reduction, communication, mental state estimation, and motor imagery. The utilization of AI algorithms and machine learning has shown great promise in these applications, primarily because of their capacity to predict and learn from past experiences. As a result, implementing these technologies within medical contexts can provide more accurate insights into the mental state of individuals, mitigate the effects of severe illnesses, and enhance the quality of life for disabled patients.

New paper regarding Brain-Computer Interfaces published:

Barnova, K., Mikolasova, M., Kahankova, R. V., Jaros, R., Kawala-Sterniuk, A., Snasel, V., … & Martinek, R. (2023). Implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning-based methods in brain-computer interaction. Computers in Biology and Medicine, 107135.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010482523006005

Categories
Uncategorized

CHIST-ERA Seminar 2023

4.-5. April 2023 – Bratislava, Slovakia

All researchers funded by Chist-ERA were brought together in Bratislava! Including BANANA project team members.

The event was fantastic and we could share our experiences with other BCI-call projects under under Chist-ERA IV “Advanced Brain-Computer Interfaces for Novel Interactions (BCI)“:

GENESIS, BISTSCOPE, ReHaB and BANANA!

We have presented poster, presentation and me (Aleksandra Kawala-Sterniuk) also co-chaired (with Hakim Si-Mohammed) session. regarding our call!

Categories
News

New Team Member will join the Opole team

From January 2023, the Banana team from Opole will be enriched with a new member – Prof. Dariusz Mikolajewski.

Dariusz is the author of over 240 publications and has managed many scientific projects. He has extensive experience in the analysis of biomedical data. He is currently completing his second PhD in Psychiatry.

https://scholar.google.pl/citations?user=AikJuGgAAAAJ&hl=pl

We are looking forward to working together!

Categories
News

Unexpected, interesting visits!

BSPL Lab from the Opole University of Technology, which is the part of the BANANA project had two interesting visits in July!

On 5th July visited us for a short visit Prof. Dean J. Krusienski from the Virginia Common University, Richmond VA. He is an authority in BCIs! He was also an author of recommendation letter for our project and is keeping his fingers crossed for us. We are also looking forward to future collaboration with prof. Krusienski!

Another visit took place on 8th July, Prof. Carla Stecco for Padua University in Italy popped in for a short visit to see our equipment to talk about potential collaboration.

Categories
News

New equipment

One of the BANANA project partners obtained their new fNIRS (functional near infra-red spectroscopy) device from the Cortivision company (https://www.cortivision.com). Initial tests in progress.