The Spatial Real and Virtual Sound Stimuli Optimization for the Auditory BCI

The paper presents results from a project aiming to create horizontally distributed surround sound sources and virtual sound images as auditory BCI (aBCI) stimuli. The purpose is to create evoked brain wave response patterns depending on attended or ignored sound directions. We propose to use a modified version of the vector based amplitude panning (VBAP) approach to achieve the goal. The so created spatial sound stimulus system for the novel oddball aBCI paradigm allows us to create a multi-command experimental environment with very encouraging results reported in this paper. We also present results showing that a modulation of the sound image depth changes also the subject responses. Finally, we also compare the proposed virtual sound approach with the traditional one based on real sound sources generated from the real loudspeaker directions. The so obtained results confirm the hypothesis of the possibility to modulate independently the brain responses to spatial types and depths of sound sources which allows for the development of the novel multi-command aBCI.