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Second Life is a virtual environment developed
by Linden Lab. The program can be downloaded and accessed via
the Internet. The users of Second Life, also called the
residents can interact with each other through avatars.
Residents can explore the environment, meet other residents
or participate in group activities. It’s even possible to
trade within Second Life!

Some people are meeting each other in their “Second-Life”.
Usually the users can control
their avatars with the computer mouse and keyboard. Dr.
Ushiba from Keio University, Department of Biosciences and
Informatics interfaced Second-Life already to a BCI-system and
used motor imagery as direct control for the avatar movement (YouTube
link). g.tec implemented now a BCI control unit based on
the P300 principle. This concept was already used for spelling
and smart-home control. Therefore different symbols are
arranged on a computer screen and are highlighted in a random
order. If the subject focuses on one specific symbol that is
flashing up the P300 response is induced and the BCI system is
able to recognize this response and therefore the symbol. To
control Second-Life different masks (GUI with icons) were
created for moving around, chatting, ... specialized for the
current task the user wants to execute.

Control mask of the P300 BCI with symbols
to turn left, turn right, move forward, etc.
The EEG signal processing is realized in
Simulink and is running in real-time to recognize the
corresponding command. Then the command is transmitted to a
Second-Life controller to translate it into Second-Life
command.

Schematic of the Second Life control
The work was performed together with
HTL Leonding (Schnürer Armin and Berth Alexander), who
produces also a
video showing the working setup .
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