Development and Characterization of a Dry ear-EEG Sensor with a Generic Flexible Earpiece

• Published in: IEEE transactions on instrumentation and measurement Vol. 72; p. 1
• Main Authors: Liang, Hongyu, Wang, Yongxuan, Li, Honghui, Wang, Yuying, Liu, Peter Xiaoping, Liu, Rong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.01.2023; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: 3D printing; Ear; ear-EEG; Electric contacts; Electrodes; Electroencephalography; Electroencephalography (EEG); generic earpiece; Impedance; Irrigation; Substrates; Three-dimensional printing; wearable EEG
• ISSN: 0018-9456; 1557-9662
• DOI: 10.1109/TIM.2023.3277949

While the sensors of current EEG wearables can be miniaturized such that they can be fit into an in-ear hearable device, the brain monitoring based on the state-of-art ear-EEG techniques has several drawbacks such as customization for one individual, time-consuming fabrication process and short life cycle. To deal with this problem, a new method to design a sensor with one channel dry electrode embedded in a generic substrate is proposed. The electrical characterizations were evaluated with 15 subjects and five EEG paradigms, in which ear-EEG and conventional scalp EEG was recorded simultaneously. Recordings from the generic dry-contact ear-EEG sensor were compared to conventional scalp EEG recordings. Reliable responses were extracted from the ear-EEG for different paradigms, albeit weaker in amplitude than from scalp EEG. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the designed generic ear-EEG sensor and its potential to achieve sustained, ease-of-use, cost-effective and off-the-shelf ear-EEG recording use.