An effective classification framework for brain-computer interface system design based on combining of fNIRS and EEG signals

Background The brain-computer interface (BCI) is a relatively new but highly promising special field that is actively used in basic neuroscience. BCI includes interfaces for human-computer communication based directly on neural activity concerning mental processes. Fundamental BCI components consist of different units. In the first stage, the EEG and NIRS signals obtained from the individuals are preprocessed, and the signals are brought to a certain standard. Methods In order to realize proposed framework, a dataset containing Motor Imaginary and Mental Activity tasks are prepared with Electroencephalography (EEG) and Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) signal. First of all, HbO and HbR curves are obtained from NIRS signals. Hbo, HbR, HbO+HbR, EEG, EEG+HbO and EEG+HbR features tables are created with the features obtained by using HbO, HbR, and EEG signals, and feature weighted is carried out with the k-Means clustering centers based attribute weighting method (KMCC-based) and the k-Means clustering centers difference based attribute weighting method (KMCCD-based). Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and k-Nearest Neighbors algorithm (kNN) classifiers are used to see the classifier differences in the study. Results As a result of this study, an accuracy rate of 99.7% (with kNN classifier and KMCCD-based weighting) is obtained in the data set of Motor Imaginary. Similarly, an accuracy rate of 99.9% (with SVM and kNN classifier and KMCCD-based weighting) is obtained in the Mental Activity dataset. The weighting method is used to increase the classification accuracy, and it has been shown that it will contribute to the classification of EEG and NIRS BCI systems. The results show that the proposed method increases classifiers’ performance, offering less processing power and ease of application. In the future, studies could be carried out by combining the k-Means clustering center-based weighted hybrid BCI method with deep learning architectures. Further improved classifier performances can be achieved by combining both systems.