Electroencephalograph based biofeedback system for improving learning skills

• US 6,626,676 B2
• Filed: 06/07/2002
• Issued: 09/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Unique Digital Technology Incorporated (Converge Technology Solutions Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Unique Digital Technology Incorporated (Converge Technology Solutions Corp.)
• Inventors: Freer, Peter A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Banks, Derris H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ADAMS, CHANDA L
• Application Number:
  US10/165,355
• Publication Number:
  US 20020182574A1
• Time in Patent Office: 480 Days
• Field of Search: 434/236, 434/258, 434/362, 600/544, 600/545
• US Class Current: 434/236
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/375 using biofeedback
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/00 Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass teaching or practice apparatus for gun-aiming or gun-laying F41G3/26
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 23/28 for medicine

Abstract

Apparatus utilizing electrical activity of the brain to control a series of low-stimuli educational exercises (displayed on a computer monitor to increase the following educational components: time on-task, visual tracking, short-term memory, visual discriminatory processing, auditory discriminatory processing, and focus. The exercises are governed by real-time analysis of the focus and processing states of the user. Specific relative exercise performance data are collected and recorded from the use of each of the educational components to demonstrate improvement over time of the user in each of the sited educational components.

Claims

1. A method of teaching a user to maintain visual tracking of a moving object while maintaining focus and cognitive processing, said method comprising:

measuring electrical activity of the brain of the user to obtain signals having values indicative of levels of focus and cognitive processing, respectively, and comparing the signals to respective reference threshold values to generate an on task signal when at least threshold levels of focus and cognitive processing are achieved; and

generating a representation of an object on a display, and causing the object to randomly move while the on task signal is being generated.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of generating a representation of an object on a display comprises generating a representation of a bug on a leaf.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of generating a representation of an object on a display comprises generating a representation of a frog on a pad.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of generating a representation of an object on a display comprises generating a representation of an object that moves more frequently as the user achieves greater focus.

5. The method of claim 1, which further comprises measuring and saving to a recording device the level of performance of individual users.

6. The method of claim 1, which further comprises accumulating and saving to a recording device the cumulative time on task of individual users.

7. A method of teaching a user to increase time on task by challenging the user to complete a task within a predetermined length of time by maintaining focus, said method comprising:

measuring electrical activity of the brain of the user to obtain at least one signal having a value indicative of level of focus and comparing the at least one signal to a reference threshold value to generate an on task signal when at least a threshold level of focus is indicated; and

generating a representation of a task on a display, and causing a moving representation of forward progress on the task while the on task signal is generated.

8. The method of claim 7, which further comprises generating a representation of reverse progress on the task when the on task signal is not being generated.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said step of generating a representation of a task on a display comprises generating a representation of building a structure of discrete elements.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said step of generating a representation of a task on a display comprises generating a representation of building a tower of blocks.

11. The method of claim 7, which further comprises increasing the level of difficulty after the user successfully completes the task within the predetermined length of time.

12. The method of claim 9, said step of generating a representation of a task on a display comprises generating a representation of the number of discrete elements required to complete the task after the user successfully completes the task within the predetermined length of time.

13. The method of claim 7, which further comprises generating distractions selected from a group consisting of visual distractions on the display and audible distractions to increase the level of difficulty.

14. The method of claim 7, which further comprises measuring and saving to a recording device the performance of individual users.

15. The method of claim 7, which further comprises accumulating and saving to a recording device the cumulative time on task of individual users.

16. A method of teaching a user to improve short term memory sequencing while maintaining a heightened level of attention, said method comprising:

measuring electrical activity of the brain of the user to obtain at least one signal having a value indicative of level of attention and comparing the at least one signal to a reference threshold value to generate an on task signal when at least a threshold level of attention is indicated; and

generating representations of a plurality of objects on a display, each of the object representations having an inactive and an active display state, and when the on task signal is generated, individually activating the display objects in a sequence while prompting the user to watch, prompting the user to respond on an input device with a remembered sequence, and indicating success or failure to the user.

17. The method of claim 16, which further comprises outputting audible tones simultaneously with the activation of the display objects.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein:

said step of prompting the user to respond on an input device comprises prompting the user to respond on a keyboard having cursor arrow keys; and

wherein;

said step of generating representations of plurality of objects on a display comprises generating representations of four rectangles arranged in the same pattern as the cursor arrow keys on the keyboard.

19. The method of claim 16, which further comprises increasing the length of the sequence after the user has achieved success a predetermined number of times.

20. The method of claim 16, which further comprises measuring and saving to a recording device the level of performance of individual users.

21. The method of claim 16, which further comprises accumulating and saving to a recording device the cumulative time on task of individual users.

22. A method of teaching a user to improve short term memory sequencing while maintaining a heightened level of attention, said method comprising:

measuring electrical activity of the brain of the user to obtain at least one signal having a value indicative of level of attention and comparing the at least one signal to a reference threshold value to generate an on task signal when at least a threshold level of attention is indicated; and

when the on-task signal is generated, presenting available keyboard characters on a display in a sequence while prompting the user to watch, prompting the user to respond on an input device with a remembered sequence, and indicating success or failure to the user.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said step of presenting available keyboard characters comprises presenting characters at random locations on the display.

24. The method of claim 22, which comprises increasing the length of the sequence after the user has achieved success a predetermined number of times.

25. The method of claim 22, which further comprises measuring and saving to a recording device the level of performance of individual users.

26. The method of claim 22, which further comprises accumulating and saving to a recording device the cumulative time on task of individual users.

27. A method of teaching a user visual discriminatory processing while maintaining focus, said method comprising:

measuring electrical activity of the brain of the user to obtain at least one signal having a value indicative of level of focus and comparing the at least one signal to a reference threshold value to generate an on task signal when at least a threshold level of focus is indicated; and

while the on task signal is being generated, randomly presenting on a display device individual ones of at least two possible stimuli one at a time, and requiring the user to respond or not respond via an input device depending on the stimulus.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein said step of randomly presenting on a display device individual ones of at least two possible stimuli one at a time comprises varying the particular stimulus which requires a response and the particular stimulus which does not require a response.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein said step of randomly presenting on a display device individual ones of at least two possible stimuli at one time comprises presenting on the display device stimuli in the form of objects that appear in individual ones of at least two colors, and requiring the user to respond to one color but not the other.

30. The method of claim 29, which further comprises:

presenting on the display device an image of a spaceship cockpit;

wherein

the objects that appear are representations of asteroids that appear one at a time hurtling towards the cockpit at random speeds and intervals; and

wherein

said step of requiring the user to respond or not respond via an input device depending on the stimulus comprises requiring the user to respond via a key on a keyboard to asteroids of at least one particular color, but not to the asteroids of another color.

31. The method of claim 27, which further comprises generating distractions selected from a group consisting of visual distractions on the display and audible distractions to increase the level of difficulty.

32. The method of claim 27, which further comprises measuring and saving to a recording device the reaction time of individual users.

33. The method of claim 27, which further comprises measuring and saving to a recording device the accuracy of individual users.

34. The method of claim 27, which further comprises measuring and saving to a recording device the number of impulsive responses of individual users.

35. The method of claim 27, which further comprises accumulating and saving to a recording device the cumulative time on task of individual users.

36. A method of teaching a user auditory discriminatory processing while maintaining focus, said method comprising:

measuring electrical activity of the brain of the user to obtain at least one signal having a value indicative of level of focus and comparing the at least one signal to a reference threshold value to generate an on task signal when at least a threshold level of focus is indicated; and

while the on task signal is being generated, randomly generating on a sound output device sequences of two sounds that may or may not match in any particular sequence and accordingly representing two possible cases, and requiring the user to respond on an input device in one of the cases and not the other.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein said step of randomly generating on a sound output device sequences of two sounds that may or may not match in any particular sequence comprises generating on the sound output device sequences of two tones that may or may not match in any particular sequence.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein said step of randomly generating on a sound output device sequences of two sounds that may or may not match in any particular sequence comprises generating on the sound output device sequences of two phonemes that may or may not match in any particular sequence.

39. The method of claim 36, which further comprises generating distractions selected from the group consisting of visual distractions on the display and audible distractions to increase the level of difficulty.

40. The method of claim 36, which further comprises measuring and saving to a recording device the reaction time of individual users.

41. The method of claim 36, which further comprises measuring and saving to a recording device the accuracy of individual users.

42. The method of claim 36, which further comprises measuring and saving to a recording device the number of impulsive responses of individual users.

43. The method of claim 36, which further comprises accumulating and saving to a recording device the cumulative time on task of individual users.

44. A method for teaching a user visual and auditory discriminatory processing while maintaining focus, said method comprising:

measuring electrical activity of the brain of the user to obtain at least one signal having a value indicative of level of focus and comparing the at least one signal to a reference threshold value to generate an on task signal when at least a threshold level of focus is indicated; and

while the on task signal is being generated, randomly presenting on a display device and generating on a sound output device particular representations in visual and auditory form that may or may not match in any particular instance and accordingly representing two possible cases, and requiring the user to respond in one of the cases and not the other.

45. The method of claim 44, which further comprises generating distractions selected from a group consisting of visual distractions on the display and audible distractions to increase the level of difficulty.

46. The method of claim 44, which further comprises measuring and saving to a recording device the reaction time of individual users.

47. The method of claim 44, which further comprises measuring and saving to a recording device the accuracy of individual users.

48. The method of claim 44, which further comprises measuring and saving to a recording device the number of impulsive responses of individual users.

49. The method of claim 44, which further comprises accumulating and saving to a recording device the cumulative time on task of individual users.

50. A method teaching a user at least one component skill of learning, said method comprising:

measuring electrical activity of the brain of the user to obtain at least one signal having a value indicative of at least one parameter selected from the group consisting of level of focus and level of cognitive processing, and comparing the signal to a reference threshold value to generate an on-task signal when at least a threshold level of the at least one parameter is indicated; and

when the on-task signal is generated, presenting a display to teach a skill selected from the group consisting of visual tracking, increased time on task, short term memory sequencing, visual discriminatory processing, auditory discriminatory processing, and combined visual and auditory discriminatory processing.

51. A method of teaching a user to improve short term memory sequencing while maintaining a heightened level of attention, said method comprising:

measuring electrical activity of the brain of the user to obtain at least one signal having a value indicative of level of attention and comparing the at least one signal to a reference threshold value to generate an on-task signal when at least a threshold level of attention is indicated; and

when the on-task signal is generated, presenting a sequence of representations on a display while prompting the user to watch, prompting the user to respond on an input device with a remembered sequence, and indicating success or failure to the user.

52. A method of teaching a user discriminatory processing while maintaining focus, said method comprising:

measuring electrical activity of the brain of the user to obtain at least one signal having a value indicative of level of focus and comparing the at least one signal to a reference threshold value to general an on-task signal when at least a threshold level of focus is indicated; and

while the on-task signal is being generated, randomly presenting to the user a decision to be made based on predetermined rules and requiring the user to make a decision.

53. A method of teaching a user to reduce impulsivity, said method comprising:

measuring electrical activity of the brain of the user to obtain at least one signal having a value indicative of level of focus and comparing the at least one signal to a reference threshold value to generate an on-task signal when at least a threshold level of focus is indicated; and

requiring the user to not respond via an input device while the on task signal is not being generated.

54. The method of claim 53, which further comprises measuring and saving to a recording device the number of impulsive responses of individual users.

55. A method of teaching a user to control behavior, said method comprising:

measuring electrical activity of the brain of the user to obtain at least one signal having a value indicative of level of focus and comparing the at least one signal to a reference threshold value to generate an on-task signal when at least a threshold level of focus is indicated; and

demonstrating to the user that the on-task signal is generated more frequently when the user refrains from self distracting behaviors.

56. The method of claim 55, which further comprises utilizing at least one attention training exercise pertaining to a component skill of learning;

and

demonstrating to the user that the level of success achieved in the exercise is increased when the user refrains from self distracting behavior.