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  • Conformal in-ear bioelectro...
    Wang, Zhouheng; Shi, Nanlin; Zhang, Yingchao; Zheng, Ning; Li, Haicheng; Jiao, Yang; Cheng, Jiahui; Wang, Yutong; Zhang, Xiaoqing; Chen, Ying; Chen, Yihao; Wang, Heling; Xie, Tao; Wang, Yijun; Ma, Yinji; Gao, Xiaorong; Feng, Xue

    Nature communications, 07/2023, Volume: 14, Issue: 1
    Journal Article

    Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have attracted considerable attention in motor and language rehabilitation. Most devices use cap-based non-invasive, headband-based commercial products or microneedle-based invasive approaches, which are constrained for inconvenience, limited applications, inflammation risks and even irreversible damage to soft tissues. Here, we propose in-ear visual and auditory BCIs based on in-ear bioelectronics, named as SpiralE, which can adaptively expand and spiral along the auditory meatus under electrothermal actuation to ensure conformal contact. Participants achieve offline accuracies of 95% in 9-target steady state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) BCI classification and type target phrases successfully in a calibration-free 40-target online SSVEP speller experiment. Interestingly, in-ear SSVEPs exhibit significant 2 harmonic tendencies, indicating that in-ear sensing may be complementary for studying harmonic spatial distributions in SSVEP studies. Moreover, natural speech auditory classification accuracy can reach 84% in cocktail party experiments. The SpiralE provides innovative concepts for designing 3D flexible bioelectronics and assists the development of biomedical engineering and neural monitoring.