Towards an ecologically valid symbiosis of BCI and head-mounted VR displays: focus on collaborative post-stroke neurorehabilitation (ReHaB)

We propose a user-friendly wearable low-power smart BCI system with an ecologically valid VR environment in which both the patient and therapist collaboratively interact via their person-specific avatar representations. On the one hand, the patient voluntarily, and in a self-paced manner, manages their activity in the environment and interacts with the therapist via a BCI-driven mental imagery process. This process is computed and rendered in real-time on an energy efficient wearable device. On the other hand, the therapist's unlimited motor and communication skills allow him to fully control the environment. Thus, the VR environment may be flexibly modified by the therapist allowing for different occupational therapy scenarios to be created and selected following the patient's recovery needs, mental states, and instantaneous responses.