Towards a remote EEGfor use in robotic sensors

Recently, it was shown that a correlation exists between
brain activity and oscillations of the pupil. As the experiment
was designed to measure exitations of the pupil for
frequencies below 1 Hz, whether such correlations also exist
on the scales of seconds and for frequencies between 5 and
40 Hz is still an open question. In this work, we design a new
experiment and measure the response of the pupil to continuous,
periodic visual and acoustic stimuli. We show that a
clear response of the pupil for flashes of 7.5Hz exists, bearing
similarity to the effect known as Steady-State Visual Evoked
Potential in neuroscience. This result can directly be used to
develop a new kind of non-contact brain-computer-interface,
using visual fixation as a trigger. Further, we evaluate the
pupil response to series of white noise clicks with a frequency
of 8 Hz, in order to assert the pupil response as due to brain
activity. First results indicate the presence of a weak signal,
showing the stimulus frequency and harmonics, bearing similarity
to the neural effect known as Auditory Steady-State
Response. Measuring brain activity remotely could provide
pathways to new kinds of sensors, in particular for collaborative
robots and general human-machine-teams, where estimates
of the mental state of the human partner are essential.