Design and Evaluation of SANS TRACAS - A Cross-Platform Tool for Conducting Online EEG Experiments

Abstract

Electroencephalography (EEG) research has been going on for centuries. However, traditional in-lab EEG studies are too complex, costly, and time-consuming for researchers and study participants. Moreover, it leads to increased marginalization and poor generalization of the findings. To solve this problem and driven by a desire to democratize EEG research, the Sans Tracas platform was created. Sans Tracas is a cross-platform web application for running EEG experiments online. A collaborative effort between cognitive neuroscientists and HCI researchers, the platform is designed via a multidisciplinary lens and using a user-centric iterative design approach to be easy to use by researchers and study participants alike. For researchers, the platform allows users to augment any behavioural study deployed on online platforms with EEG data recordings from the commercially-available InteraXon Muse EEG device. For end-users who have access to the Muse, the platform is focused on having them perform entire EEG studies on their own from the comfort of their homes. This thesis discusses the design, development, and evaluation of Sans Tracas. The results of the main study (N = 55), followed by a semi-structured interview of 11 participants, show that participants found Sans Tracas easy to use, useful, and had fun participating in EEG experiments independently and are now more interested in EEG and Brain Computer Interface (BCI) research than before. Additionally, the EEG data collected was of good quality and viable for online EEG studies. Sans Tracas is exceptionally usable for conducting online EEG studies and is a better experience overall than traditional in-lab studies.