Assessing the Potential of Brain-Computer Interface Multiplayer Video Games using c-VEPs: A Pilot Study

Video games have become a common and widespread form of entertainment, while non-invasive brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are emerging as potential alternative communication technologies. Combining BCIs and video games can enhance the gaming experience and make it accessible to motor-disabled individuals. Recently, code-modulated visual evoked potentials (c-VEP) have been proposed as a novel control signal able to achieve high performance with short calibration times. However, there are still no video games that use c-VEPs as a control signal. The aim of this pilot study is to develop an implementation of the 'Connect 4' multiplayer video game using a c-VEP-based BCI and test it with 10 healthy users. Participants were paired to compete in matches and carried out individual tasks. The results showed that the participants were able to control the game with an average accuracy of 94.10% and a selection time of 5.25 seconds per command, outperforming previous approaches. This suggests that the proposed video game is feasible and c-VEPs can provide smooth BCI control.