BCI / Brain-Computer Interface Race
Ebrainers
Hungary
About the Team
We are the Ebrainers, a team from the Faculty of Information Technology and Bionics at Pázmány Péter Catholic University. Our goal is to develop a Brain-Computer Interface System that enables individuals with tetraplegia to control digital devices using their willpower.
We are proud to showcase that we have built a complete and reliable system from scratch in under 5 years. We hope that our work will inspire others to create great things for humanity.
The core developers of our team are András Adolf and Csaba Köllőd, who are both PhD students at the university. They are working under the supervision of István Ulbert.
About the Pilot
Zoltán Csortos - Pilot:
Zoltán Csortos is a BCI driver driven by curiosity and a love for the program. He first became involved in 2019 and, despite minor interruptions, has trained with perseverance ever since. He enjoys the challenge and emotional engagement that comes with BCI training and competitions. Zoltán's main goal in races is to replicate the results he achieves during training, though he knows staying focused under competitive pressure will be his greatest challenge.
Before a life-changing accident in 2007 left him with tetraplegia, Zoltán had an active lifestyle, working in public administration with a degree in economics and regularly engaging in sports. He now lives in an institutional setting and is highly attached to his daily routines. Outside of BCI, he has a deep love for theatre and enjoys attending football matches with friends.
Zoltán faces the ongoing challenge of adapting his daily life to the limitations of his condition. Looking to the future, he hopes that BCI research will lead to simpler tools that can be integrated into daily life, providing more widespread accessibility.
Zoltán Boda - Secondary Pilot:
Zoltán Boda, a competitive BCI driver, is motivated by the thrill of competing against other pilots and teams. His primary goal is for his team to reach the finals, and while he enjoys the progress made during weekly training sessions, he views it as an opportunity to work on self-control, as he describes himself as impulsive.
Living in institutional care due to his vulnerability, Zoltán follows a structured daily routine and takes great pleasure in starting his day well-rested after a good night’s sleep. His tetraplegia resulted from a fall in 2013, fracturing his C4 vertebrae. Before the accident, Zoltán worked as a nighttime taxi driver in Budapest, a job he loved as it combined his passion for driving with earning a living. He was also very active, spending time running his dog, playing football, and enjoying sports with friends.
The biggest challenge in his daily life is exercising patience, even for simple things like waiting for a glass of water. Zoltán hopes that BCI research will lead to advancements such as mind-controlled robotic arms, which could greatly ease everyday tasks for people with similar conditions. He also believes that approving subdermal electrodes in Europe would be a significant leap forward in the field.
About the Device
We use a 64-channeled BrainProducts EEG amplifier system for signal acquisition, followed by our custom-developed signal processing code written in Python. After artefact filtering and signal processing, a neural network is used to classify the pilot’s intention correctly.
For more information, please check out our latest publications on the topic:
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2326263X.2023.2254463