popplesan

Do you think that apps collecting private data should go through a stricter review process before getting accepted?

In academia we have to run every study through IRB, detailing the type of data we collect and how we’ll secure it and minimize harmful effects. Should a similar requirement apply to app developers?

I’m not the OP, but I have 6 years of EEG experience and currently getting my PhD in computation cognitive science doing EEG-based BCI research. I also teach an undergraduate course on EEG-based BCIs.

There are a lot of pitfalls to EEG, but it’s still an exceptional tool. There are various well studied ERPs that are utilized in interesting ways to create tools for the users who need them. The biggest problems EEG has are lack of spatial resolution and relatively low signal to noise ratio during real-world recordings. Since muscle artifacts are orders of magnitude larger than the scalp EEG, it’s crucial to eliminate movement for clean EEG. As Luck said, there’s no replacement for good data. However, there are a lot of approaches for removing noise, some of which are becoming viable to implement on lower density dry electrode arrays and in uncontrolled environments in real-time, although this is still largely theoretical. The temporal resolution of EEG is great and because of that it’s an excellent solution for developing spellers and other interfaces for differently-abled patients and its relative low cost makes it commercially viable (like the ADS1299). I think EEG-based BCIs have not seen their peak yet, and I’m expecting them to explode in popularity over the next 5-10 years and I plan on being at the forefront of that explosion.