Brain computer interfaces: psychology and pragmatic perspectives for the future.

Whilst technologies, such as psychophysiological
measurements in general and electroencephalograms (EEG) in
particular, have been around and continually improving for many years, future technologies promise to revolutionise the emerging Information Society through the development of brain-computer interfaces and augmented cognition solutions. This paper explores critical psychological and pragmatic issues that must be understood before these technologies can deliver their potential well. Within the context of HCI, we examined a sample (n =105) BCI papers and found that the majority of research aimed to provide communication and control resources to people with
disabilities or with extreme task demands. However, the concepts of usability and accessibility, and respective findings from their substantial research literatures were rarely applied explicitly but referenced implicitly. While this suggests an increased awareness of these concepts and the related large research literatures, the task remains to sharpen these concepts and to articulate their obvious relevance to BCI work.