Validations

Mindtooth Validations

1.

Technology Validation

Find more about this validation

2.

Validation in Real Environments

This validation  was performed in 3 different contexts:
Pilot Training | Automotive SimulatorIndustrial Workers

1. Technology Validation

Mindtooth technology compared with the gel-based gold standard:
The electrodes technology chosen for the Mindtooth EEG headset are the water-based technology, allowing a good signal quality, without the drawback of having the gel, that makes useless the usage of EEG technology for out-of-the-lab applications.
The water-based EEG sensors technology used in the Mindtooth Touch headset has been validated during the first validation of the Mindtooth project. Sensors’ effectiveness has been compared with gel-based Ag/AgCl electrodes considered the gold-standard in neuroscience research.
In addition, in the same test the design of the Mindtooth Touch prototype has been tested in terms of quality of contact and usability.  

Figure 1. 

Scheme of the experimental set-up. (A) A scheme of the position of the electrodes and instrumental set-up. Water-based electrodes are shown in red, gel-based electrodes in blue, and the control electrode in green. (B) The actual experimental set-up was used for the EEG sensors comparison. (C) Mindtooth Touch EEG headset, designed for working with water-based electrodes (right), and modified version equipped with the LiveAmp amplifier (left).

30 subjects have been tested in identical tasks wearing once time a traditional EEG Cup with gel electrodes in the same position of water based electrode in Mindtooth headset , once time the Mindtooth prototype
Obtained results showed a high correlation in EEG-based features in frequency domain, used for the evaluation of neurometrics, derived by the two technologies (i.e. water-based vs gel-based electrodes). 

Figure 2. 

EEG spectra for each channel in the interval 2–30 Hz. Spectra obtained with water electrodes are shown in red, and spectra obtained with gel electrodes are shown in blue. The last subplot shows the AFz-gel and control electrode. The solid lines represent the average of the spectra over the population, and the shadowed areas represent the standard deviation.

In the same test the Mindtooth Touch structure showed high usability (i.e. very easy to put on and take off) and good quality of contact of the EEG water-based electrodes.
In this regard, the usability, worth to mention is that the Mindtooth Touch headset during the Project has been tested on more than 200 humans, with different hairstyles, head shapes, nationality and age, demonstrating to maintain a very high comfort over time.
In conclusion, testing it for validation the Mindtooth Touch EEG Heaset design confirmed that it is able to guarantee:
- Good electrodes contact
- Comparable signal quality of gel-based electrodes
- High comfort over time
- Good fitting to all the heads
The complete study of the validation have been published in the journal paper “Frontiers in Human Neuroscience”, available at the following link.

2. Validation in Real Environments

Mindtooth methodology for neurometrics assessment in out-of-the-labs contexts:
The Mindtooth system as a whole, has been tested during the operational contexts investigated within the project. In particular, three experiments have been performed, respectively:

Pilot Training

URBE AERO Training centre, Rome, Italy

Automotive Simulator

ITCL, Burgos

Industrial Workers

Brain Products GmbH, Gilching, Germany

During the experimental activities, an advanced version of the Mindtooth framework has been used to develop specific third party apps, fully customized within each of the three operational contexts.
Neurometrics of workload, stress, vigilance, which were part of the planned project, as well as the new neurometric of cooperation have been employed within the aforementioned applications, even online, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Mindtooth technology in realistic settings.
  
The three validation tests, performed in Italy, Spain, and Germany were successful in demonstrating:
- The effectiveness of the Mindtooth system as a whole, i.e., EEG headset comfort and effectiveness of sensors contact quality, effectiveness of neurometrics of workload, stress, vigilance and also of cooperation Index,
- The real possible usefulness of developing 3rd party applications that rely on a real-time integration with the Mindtooth service for tracking of Neurometrics. Although the applications and specific contexts explored in this may only be limited in scope with respect to the overall landscape of applications in which the Mindtooth system can actually be employed, the results already appear to be very promising.

Part of these results, together with the validation of all the neurometrics have been published in peer reviewed journal papers and are available at the following links:
- Evaluation of a New Lightweight EEG Technology for Translational Applications of Passive Brain-Computer Interfaces
- Validation of a Light EEG-Based Measure for Real-Time Stress Monitoring during Realistic Driving

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