Novel analysis technique for a brain biometric system

We present various techniques to detect a target in an oddball paradigm. These techniques are presented with reference to two P300 paradigms being studied to build a biometric system using electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. The novel inblock paradigm presented in this paper proposes a possible variant to the known oddball paradigm and analyses the effect of spatial location of the target block with respect to the non-target block. It brings out a new approach in the oddball paradigm, wherein location of the target might help evoke a higher P300 potential. A comparison of the various analysis techniques studied for both the paradigms is also presented. Initial results from four subjects show that energy analysis gave improved results than the traditional amplitude analysis techniques for target detection in the studied oddball paradigms. The results were comparable for all subjects except for one subject where energy analysis provided better target detection, suggesting that energy based methods could be further explored. This proposed novel paradigm is a step towards the online brain biometric system which is being built for authentication in high security scenarios. © 2008 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.