EEG SIGNAL CLASSIFICATION USING AAR AND SVM WITH EEG-

GYROSCOPE SENSOR OF EMOTIV EPOC

Ahmad Reza Musthafa, Handayani Tjandrasa
Informatics Department, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember
Jl. Raya ITS, Kampus ITS, Sukolilo, Surabaya 60111
E-mail: rezaaltraz@yahoo.com, handatj@its.ac.id

ABSTRACT
Electroencephalogram signals (EEG) has been widely researched and developed in various fields of science. EEG signals can
be classified into informations for the application of the topic Brain Computer Interface (BCI). There are several approaches in EEG
signal classification, but some of these approaches are not robust to the EEG signal that has a lot of artifact and recorded in real time.
This study aims to classify the EEG signal to obtain a more optimal result, especially in the EEG signal that has many artifacts and
recorded in real time. This research uses the Emotiv EPOC device to record EEG signals in real time. In this research, we propose the
combination of Automatic Artifact Removal (AAR) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) that it has accuracy of 70% in four classes
classification. This proposed AAR can improve 3% to 6% of accuracy.

Keywords: EEG signal classification, fast fourier transform, artifact removal, BCI

The head movement can affect almost the entire EEG

INTRODUCTION
EEG signals has been widely researched and
developed in various fields of science and technology
nowadays. EEG is a signal that obtained from human brain
activity, which connected with some of the activities of the
human. EEG signals can be classified into useful
information, eg motoric information, emotions, human
nature, etc. Classification of the EEG signal, can be a
useful technology for humans, especially for humans with
disabilities. So it can help them to do an activity like a
normal people.
There are a lot of relevant researches on the
classification of EEG signals to the topic of Brain
Computer Interface (BCI). Research by using a
combination of wavelet and Support Vector Machine
(SVM) has high accuracy [9]. Research that has the
highest accuracy in EEG signals classification is using a
combination of wavelet and Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Logic
System (IT2FLS) method [4] based on previous research
theory [8]. However, the research methods are not optimal
if the input have a lot of artifacts that caused by head
movements or eye blink. The research methods are also
not optimal when applied to EEG signals that acquired in
real time. There are some approaches that can be used to
remove artifacts in the EEG signal. Based on literature
between 2010 until 2015, researches on the topic of
artifact removal only use Independent Component
Analysis (ICA) method [15, 16, 17]. In addition there are
approaches that use the combination of ICA with other
method, such as Lifting Wavelet Transform [18], and
Daubechies Wavelet Transform [19]. At these approaches
simply do the artifacts removal caused by eye blink [6],
eye movement, and changes in the EEG voltage
interference. There is no artifact removal caused by head
movement. These approaches will have trouble when EEG
signals have a lot of artifacts caused by head movement.
signals from every electrode channels of EEG device.
Based on the problems found in EEG signals
classification and artifacts removal, we proposed
Automatic Artifact Removal (AAR) using a modified ICA
that use two references of signal, EEG and Gyroscope
signals. In previous research, gyroscope sensor used to
detect artifact by distribution analysis [5], whereas in this
study using a modified ICA. Modification of ICA is to
obtain independent component which has a sequence
index. The use of gyroscope sensor is expected to
overcome the problem of EEG signal which has a lot of
artifacts caused by head movement. The artifacts removal
in this research had two stages, the first stage is the eye
blink artifacts removal, then the second stage is the head
movement artifacts removal. Automatic artifact removal
caused by eye blink and head movement is expected to
improve the results of EEG signal classification.
MATERIALS AND THEORIES
EEG signals were used in this research was recorded
using the Emotiv EPOC of users age 19 to 32 years[14],
do not have a mental disability, and never drink alcohol.
Age affects the production of EEG signals[13]. The type
classification of EEG signals used in this research is the
action signal or a command given by just thinking that
command. In this research used four classes or action,
such as left, right, up, or down. At the signal recording
process, the user should see a visual on the monitor screen.
It aims to minimize the variance in the data was recorded.
EEG signal processing is techniques to process and
translate the EEG signal into useful information.
Classification of the EEG signals, can be a useful
technique for humans, especially for humans with
disabilities. So it can help them to do an activity like a
normal people. However, the EEG signal processing has
many challenges, particularly the issue of noise or artifacts
contained in the EEG signal. Artifacts can be caused by
eye blink, head movements, muscle activity, the quality of
the electrode, etc. So its can reduce the quality of the EEG
signal, then the classification result is far from the
expected. In this research, we proposed a modified ICA
that use combination of EEG and Gyroscope signals to
overcome the problem of artifacts in the EEG signal.
Independent Component Analysis (ICA)
Independent Component Analysis (ICA) is a signal
processing technique for finding hidden components that
make up a collection of random variables (the result of the
measurement, signal or general data). If A is n m matrix
of mixing signal and n is the noise, the observed (mixed)
signal vector x can be written as follows:
EEG
Artifacts
Gyro
Figure 1. Artifacts in EEG signal
(Source : Medical Engineering & Physics 35 2013)
x As n (1)
After estimate the matrix A, then calculate inverse of A
(called W) using Fast-ICA algoritm. After W is obtained,
source signals can be calculated as follows:
y Wx (2)
There are some ambiguity in the ICA, such as can not
ascertain a variant of the independent component and can
not determine the sequence of independent components.
Therefore, in this research ICA is modified by adding the
calculation of standard deviation values for each
component, then the standard deviation value will be
compared, so as to obtain an independent component in
accordance with the sequence and its variants.
Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)
FFT is an efficient and powerful algorithm to
calculate the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) and its
inverse, so it can reduce the amount of DFT calculations,
where the principle of DFT is to transform the analog
signal into discrete signals in time domain, and then
transformed into the frequency domain. This is done by
multiplying the discrete signal with a kernel function. The
following is a calculation of the FFT, Derived from DFT-
N data,
2
j mi
X (m) i 0 x(n)e
N 1 N (3)
with i is an index in the time domain, while m is an index
in the frequency domain [11]. The conclusion of the FFT
algorithm, has lower computing time compared to DFT
algorithm. DFT calculations directly would require
arithmetic operations as O(N2), whereas the calculation of
the FFT operation requires only as much as O(NlogN).
Power Spectral Density (PSD)
This method was first proposed by Welch in 1967.
Input is divided into short segments and periodogram
calculation is based on FFT calculation, thus to estimate
the power spectrum can be done in a more efficient
computation. Each segment of data is modified by
multiplying at a window function (window), before the
calculation of the periodogram. Then periodogram that has
been modified will be averaged and will estimate the
better spectrum. The following is the equation to calculate
the power spectrum by using FFT.
1
| i1 wi xi e ji |2 ,
N
(4)
s(e jw )( N )
1
| i1 wi |2
N
N
s(e jw ) is power spectrum, and wi is window coefficient.
Support Vector Machine (SVM)
SVM concepts can be explained simply as an attempt
to find the best hyperplane which functions as a two
classes separator in the input space. As shown in Figure 2
[10]. Hyperplane of best separator between the two classes
Class 2
Class 1
Figure 2. Hyperplane SVM
can be found by measuring the margin hyperplane, and
looking for maximum points. Margin is the distance
between the hyperplane to the nearest pattern of each
class. SVM can classify the data separated linearly
(linearly separable) and non-linear (nonlinear separable)
[3]. Linearly separable data is the data that can be
separated linearly.
SVM was first developed by Vapnik for binary
classification, further developed for the multiclass
classification. Its approach is to build a multi-class
classifier, that is by combining several binary SVM. This
approach consists of One Against All method and One
Against One method [1].
METHODS
This research uses two references of signal, EEG and
Gyroscope signals. Accordance goals and limitations in
this research, the type of EEG signals used in this research
are beta and gamma waves. That is because the beta wave
Start
occurs when a person is thinking and awake, whereas the
gamma wave is generated when hard thinking. Data EEG signals and gyroscope
obtained from the gyroscope sensor will be used to support
artifacts removal. Figure 4 shows EEG signal processing Head movement artifact removal
in this research. ICA (EEG-Gyro)
Mean and stdev comparation

EEG
AAR FFT EEG IC Artifact IC
Gyroscope
Eye blink artifact removal
Get and signal ICA (EEG)
Mean and stdev comparation

SVM PSD EEG IC Artifact IC

Finish
Result : Left, Up, Down, or Right
Figure 5. Artifact removal design
Figure 3. Research design
Feature Extraction
a There are several approaches for EEG signal feature
extraction, such as spectrum analyzers, the Bayesian
approach [7], statistical analysis, wavelet transform. In this
b research, we use Power Spectral Density (PSD). This stage
aims to get features that are used for training and testing
process using SVM.
c

Classification
d
SVM classification method is divided into two
processes: training and testing. In the training process, the
e features are obtained from the feature extraction process of
the training data. While in the testing process, the features
are from the testing data.
Figure 4. EEG signal processing: (a) EEG signal, Training algorithm for each SVM-binary can be
(b) Artifact removal, (c) FFT result, (d) Inverse FFT written as follows: Matrix B (feature extraction results) as
for alpha and beta waves, (e) PSD result an input and the vector Y as a target input and the output is
w, x, b (variables of hyperplane). The steps [2] are
described as follows:
Automatic Artifact Removal 1. Initialize Input (Z = B) and Target (Y) as a training
In this research we proposed Automatic Artifact composition of two classes.
Removal (AAR) using a modified ICA that use two 2. Calculate Gaussian kernel K(Z,Zi ) = exp | Z Z i | 2
( )
references of signal, EEG and Gyroscope signals. (2 2 )
Especially for artifacts removal caused by head 3. Calculate Hessian matrix H = K(Z,Zi ) * Y * YT.
movements and eye blink. 4. Initialize c and epsilon.
The results produced by the ICA method sometimes 5. Initialize vector e as a vector unit which has
have indexes that are not similar sequence between the dimensions equal to the dimension Y.
EEG signals and the ICA outputs. To overcome this, we 6. Calculate quadratic programming solutions: min
added a comparison between mean and standard deviation
values of each ICA outputs.
1
L( ) T H e T , where yT 0 and
2
0 c.
 SVM-Multiclass classification for One Against All of testing data. In this research we use LIBSVM library
will build several binary SVM k (k is the count of classes). [12].
Kernel functions used in this research is Gaussian kernel.
K(x,y)=exp ( | x y | ) .
2
(5) RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
(2 )
2

A number of support vector at each training data
must be calculated to get the best solution of separator or
hyperplane. Solution of separator obtained by the
following formula w =iyixi ; b = yk- wTxk for each xk ,
with k 0. The testing process at each SVM-binary also
use w, b, and xi value that resulting in the training process
in each SVM-binary. Function generated for the testing
process is
f i K ( xi , x d )wi bi (6)
where : i = 1 until k; xi = support vector; xd = testing data.
The output is an index with the largest fi which is a class
The data used in this research is 150 EEG signals,
eight channels in each signal. EEG signals were recorded
using Emotiv EPOC device directly, and requires two
seconds duration. The recorded signals has a length of 256
bit for each channel. Recording process must consider the
terms of the recording process that used in this research,
such as having age between 19 to 32 years, never drink
alcohol, and do not have a mental disability. The recorded
EEG signals will be processed by using proposed method
in this research, then the results are stored into a database
to be used as training and testing data. 115 data are used as
training data, and 35 data are used as testing data. Results

...
a

...
b

c
...

d ...

Figure 6. Feature of every class : (a) Left, (b) Right, (c) Up, (d) Down

Table 1. Experimental result of classification with proposed AAR

Class Method Precission Recall F-Measure

AAR* + SVM 0.92 1.00 0.95
2 AAR* + NN 1.00 1.00 1.00
AAR* + NN-SVM 0.92 1.00 0.95
AAR* + SVM 0.70 0.96 0.81
4 AAR* + NN 0.74 1.00 0.85
AAR* + NN-SVM 0.68 1.00 0.81

Table 2. Experimental result of classification without AAR

Class Method Precission Recall F-Measure

SVM 0.96 1.00 0.97
2 NN 0.96 1.00 0.97
NN-SVM 0.96 1.00 0.97
SVM 0.67 0.95 0.79
4 NN 0.68 1.00 0.81
NN-SVM 0.65 1.00 0.79
of EEG signal classification consist of information about
thinking the action right, left, up, or down.
EEG signals captured in
real time
Object moves depend on classification result
Figure 7. EEG classification experiment in real time
Offline testing performed by comparing the accuracy
of some methods that has been done in the previous
research. Online testing performed by controlling the
simulation using the commands or instructions from EEG
signal in real time. Modification of ICA in this research is
done by adding a comparison of the mean and standard
deviation to obtain independent components that have an
index corresponding to variants, as well as using the EEG
signal and gyroscope sensor as references. The use of
gyroscope sensor is able to overcome the problem of
artifacts caused by head movement. Since the Emotiv
EPOC records gyroscope and EEG signal simultaneously.
The results of classification with four class has 70% of
accuracy due to difficult to get detailed information from
the EEG signal. The results of classification with two
classes was able to obtain 92% of accuracy. The recorded
signals may also be affected by EOG, ECG, or EMG
activities. The accuracy value can be better if users or
volunteers are in high concentration condition when EEG
signals was recorded. There are differences in accuracy
results of ICA method and modified ICA method. The
difference occurs when the EEG signals recorded have
many artifacts caused by head movement. When the user
moves the head, the artifacts affect every electrode on the
EEG device. It causes the artifacts removal process which
only use EEG signals has not optimal results. Figure 8a is
an EEG signal that is affected by head movement. Figure
8b is a signal that obtained from gyroscope sensor. If only
use EEG signal references, it will be difficult to remove
artifacts caused by head movement.
Therefore, in this research we use modified ICA with EEG
and gyroscope signals. Our proposed method were able to
eliminate these artifacts, as shown in Figure 8c. the EEG
signal that has been cleaned from artifacts can improve the
accuracy value of classification.
CONCLUSIONS
EEG signals classification by using our proposed
method has accuracy of 70% for four classes and 92% for
two classes. On the application of EEG signal processing
in real time requires high enough computer performance,
due to the EEG signals will be processed every two
seconds. Automatic Artifact Removal in this research is
better to use in case that more than two classes. That AAR
can improve 3% to 6% of accuracy. In this research, the
results of NN are better than SVM in classification
a
b
c
Figure 8. EEG signal: (a) EEG signal with
head movement artifact, (b) Gyroscope
signal, (c) Cleaned EEG signal
process, but SVM are better than NN in time performance.
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