Excuse Me, Do I Know You From Somewhere? Unaware Facial Recognition Using Brain-Computer Interfaces

Abstract

While a great deal of research has been done on \ the human brain’s reaction to seeing faces and \ reaction to recognition of these faces, the unaware \ recognition of faces is an area where further research \ can be conducted and contributed to. We performed a \ preliminary experiment where participants viewed \ images of faces of individuals while we recorded their \ EEG signals using a consumer-grade BCI headset. \ Pre-selection of the images used in each of the three \ phases in the experiment allowed us to tag each image \ based on what state of recognition we expect the image \ to take – No Recognition, a Possible Unaware \ Recognition, and a Possible Aware Recognition. We \ find, after filtering, artifact removal, and analysis of \ the participants’ EEG signals recorded from a \ consumer-grade BCI headset, obvious differences \ between the three classes of recognition (as defined \ above) and, more specifically, unaware recognitions, \ can be easily identified.