An offline/real-time artifact rejection strategy to improve the classification of multi-channel evoked potentials

The primary goal of this paper is to improve the classification of multi-channel evoked potentials (EPs) by introducing a temporal domain artifact detection strategy and using this strategy to (a) evaluate how the performance of classifiers is affected by artifacts and (b) show how the performance can be improved by detecting and rejecting artifacts in offline and real-time classification experiments. Using a pattern recognition approach, an artifact is defined in this study as any signal that may lead to inaccurate classifier parameter estimation and inaccurate testing. The temporal domain artifact detection tests include: a within-channel standard deviation (STD) test that can detect sign…