A short review and primer on event-related potentials in human computer interaction applications

TL;DR

This paper provides a beginner-friendly overview of event-related potentials (ERPs) in human-computer interaction, emphasizing their application outside laboratory settings and addressing associated challenges.

Contribution

It offers a concise primer on ERP concepts tailored for HCI applications, highlighting recent developments and practical considerations for real-world use.

Findings

ERPs show promise for HCI outside lab environments

Recent work addresses challenges in ecological validity

ERPs can enhance personalized human-computer interfaces

Abstract

The application of psychophysiology in human-computer interaction is a growing field with significant potential for future smart personalised systems. Working in this emerging field requires comprehension of an array of physiological signals and analysis techniques. Event-related potentials, termed ERPs, are a stimulus- or action-locked waveform indicating a characteristic neural response. ERPs derived from electroencephalography have been extensively studied in basic research, and have been applied especially in the field of brain-computer interfaces. For ecologically-valid settings there are considerable challenges to application, however recent work shows some promise for ERPs outside the lab. Here we present a short review on the application of ERPs in human-computer interaction. This paper aims to serve as a primer for the novice, enabling rapid familiarisation with the latest core concepts. We put special emphasis on everyday human-computer interface applications to distinguish from the more common clinical or sports uses of psychophysiology. This paper is an extract from a comprehensive review of the entire field of ambulatory psychophysiology, including 12 similar chapters, plus application guidelines and systematic review. Thus any citation should be made using the following reference: B. Cowley, M. Filetti, K. Lukander, J. Torniainen, A. Henelius, L. Ahonen, O. Barral, I. Kosunen, T. Valtonen, M. Huotilainen, N. Ravaja, G. Jacucci. The Psychophysiology Primer: a guide to methods and a broad review with a focus on human-computer interaction. Foundations and Trends in Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 9, no. 3-4, pp. 150--307, 2016.