A Home Automation Interface for BCI application validated with SSVEP protocol

This work aimed at developing a BCI driven application for the control of a commercial home automation system. The application was developed using the BCI framework proposed by the SensibiLab Laboratories (Politecnico di Milano) and interfaced with a four command SSVEP based system. A specific software module was implemented in order to provide an interaction layer with an home automation system. A MyHome® gateway was provided by BTicino spa (Erba, Italy) and a basic demonstrator was set-up in our laboratory. The standard physical communication layer of the adopted gateway is RS-232 and, in order to maximize the ease of installation, a specific RS-232 to Bluetooth module was designed. The Application layer was implemented using the OpenWebNet® language proposed by BTicino. Although the current demonstrator supports only a few light-point and some auxiliary devices, the software module supports all the options provided by the home automation system. Six healthy subjects whose ability to use the SSVEP system was already assessed were able to control the demonstrator.