AIMEE BLODGETT AND RYAN MORRIS
Yael Arbel, a key research collaborator, demonstrates the BCI.
current BCI studies at USF. “Our research continues to deal with various aspects of the P-300 and many other brain responses,” says Donchin. “The P-300/BCI research is just one application of this very large body of continuing research on P-300.” Other researchers have used a “joystick” rather than a keyboard, but Donchin prefers the keyboard because it does not require extensive pre-training for users. “There is a general consensus in the field that the P-300/BCI is ready for use by locked-in patients,” explains Donchin, who has been chair of the USF Department of Psychology since 2001. “The current challenge is to increase BCI response speed and contin-
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USF MAGAZINE | WINTER 2008
The P-300 Speller allows the user to type on a virtual keyboard with the P-300 response serving as the virtual finger. ue the development of a home version of the P300/BCI. We have recently begun to explore the degree to which the P300/BCI can be used to allow the control of a robotic arm.” Finding ways to speed up the P-300/BCI is currently a joint endeavor with the USF Pattern Recognition