TY - JOUR UR - https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1361v1 DO - 10.7287/peerj.preprints.1361v1 TI - The mind-writing pupil: A human-computer interface based on decoding of covert attention through pupillometry AU - Mathôt,Sebastiaan AU - Melmi,Jean-Baptiste AU - van der Linden,Lotje AU - Van der Stigchel,Stefan DA - 2015/09/10 PY - 2015 KW - human-computer interface KW - brain-computer interface KW - pupillometry KW - covert visual attention AB - We present a new human-computer interface that is based on decoding of attention through pupillometry. Our method builds on the recent finding that covert visual attention affects the pupillary light response: Your pupil constricts when you covertly (without looking at it) attend to a bright, compared to a dark, stimulus. In our method, participants covertly attend to one of several letters with oscillating brightness. Pupil size reflects the brightness of the selected letter, which allows us--with high accuracy and in real time--to determine which letter the participant intends to select. The performance of our method is comparable to the best covert-attention brain-computer interfaces to date, and has several advantages: no movement other than pupil-size change is required; no physical contact is required (i.e. no electrodes); it is easy to use; and it is reliable. Potential applications include: communication with totally locked-in patients, training of sustained attention, and ultra-secure password input. VL - 3 SP - e1361v1 T2 - PeerJ PrePrints JO - PeerJ PrePrints J2 - PeerJ PrePrints SN - 2167-9843 ER -