IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - October 2016 - 128

4) the human subject metadata
5) the recording environment metadata
6) the synchronization metadata.
Many ongoing studies have tested
the impact of audio, gaze, motion capture, raw, and compressed videos on
the brain. The metadata associated with
these multimodal, multistimulating
environments are recommended in
Annex B of CTA-2060 as optional standards. A user manual has also been proposed to guide the implementers of
CTA-2060 on account of multimodal
EEG signal collection. It is believed
that Annex B will provide practical new
directions as pure EEG measurement
might not represent fully the complex
interaction of human brain, heart, and
other senses.

SOME THOUGHTS ON EXG
STANDARDS
The XDF standard marks the first step in
quantifying the collected biometrics signals, starting with EEG. The EEG signals, without associations and qualifiers
such as those attempted in Annexes A
and B, are individual cases, often with
subtle signal variations. The metadata
cover diverse and extensive user conditions. The attempt to group them into an

Conference Reports

encompassing yet manageable set may
still result in inconsistency and irrelevance depending on the information
source and the handler of the particular
brain signals. Assuming that the human
brain has commonality associated with
broad, common, healthy or unhealthy
physiological and/or psychological conditions, the challenge of indexing the
metadata to infer the cause and effect of
a range of brain profiles is similar to that
associated with big data analytics.
It is hoped that understanding the
brain can be used as leverage with big
data and deep-learning development by
using synchronized data as a legitimate
basis for comparison. Otherwise, the
massive gigabytes of data obtained over
the last decade could prove to be garbage. Subsequent specification efforts
leading to the adoption of the LSL,
HED, and ESS protocols can facilitate
the setup of intelligent and distributed
storage and retrieval from a brain data
bank over the Internet infrastructure.

STATUS AND FUTURE DISCUSSION
The XDF specification became available in February 2016. Since then,
monthly conference calls have refined it
to include three categories of defined

recommendation: mandatory, highly
recommended, and optional. These categories of recommendation require
industry input, review, and approval.
Please contact the CTA staff (Veronica
Lancaster at vlancaster@cta.tech or
Kerriann Karesign at kharesign@cta.
tech) for information on future monthly
conference call dates and a meeting to
be held in conjunction with the CTA
Standards and Technology Forum, slated for October 2016 in Austin, Texas.

REFERENCES
[1] N. Bigdely-Shamlo, T. Mullen, C. Kothe,
N. Chu, and K. Robbins, "Interoperability
standards series for consumer EEG data," presented at the CEA Standards and Technology
Conf., San Diego, CA, 2015.
[2] N. N. Y. Chu, "Brain-computer interface
technology and development: The emergence
of imprecise brainwave headsets in the commercial world," IEEE Consum. Electron. Mag.,
vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 2-9, July 2015.
[3] Berlin Brain-Computer Interface. (2014).
Winter school videos. [Online]. Available: http://
www.bbci.de/winterschool-2014
[4] Standard for Consumer EEG File Format
(XDF), r6sc4wg3 CTA-2060, 2016, draft. To
obtain a draft copy, contact Kerriann Karesign
at kharesign@cta.tech.

(continued from page 20)

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128 IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

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OCTOBER 2016

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - October 2016