PCA plus HMM plus SVM for EEG pattern classification

Electroencephalogram (EEG) pattern classification plays an important role in the domain of brain computer interface (BCI). Hidden Markov model (HMM) might be a useful tool in EEG pattern classification since EEG data is a multivariate time series data which contains noise and artifacts. In this paper we present methods for EEG pattern classification which jointly employ principal component analysis (PCA) and HMM. Along this line, two methods are introduced: (1) PCA+HMM; (2) PCA+HMM+SVM. Usefulness of principal component features and our hybrid method is confirmed through the classification of EEG that is recorded during the imagination of a left or right hand movement.