The Potential of the Brain-Computer Interface for Learning: A Technology Review

This paper provides a review of technology that has emerged to facilitate pervasive brain-computer interface applications. Such technology is beginning to be applied to the human-computer interface, as part of multimodal interaction. As the technology taps into brain state and provides an associated quantitative assessment, it has potential for the real-time assessment of a person’s cognitive state. As such, many emerging applications could be addressed such as the assessment of learning. In the future, it may even be possible to tune learning materials in a manner appropriate to the state of a user using a feedback loop. In particular, the interaction of brain-computer interface technology with technologies such as augmented reality holds some promise, however, the technology is as yet unverified beyond lifestyle and gaming interaction. Consequently, this paper aims to review low-cost, commercial brain-computer interface technologies and posits their use as an interaction modality within future learning environments.