Brain–Computer Interface for EEG-Based Authentication: Advancements and Practical Implications

by Lamia Alahaideb, Abeer Al-Nafjan, Hessah Aljumah, and Mashael Aldayel.

Authentication is a critical component of digital security, and traditional methods often encounter significant vulnerabilities and limitations. This study addresses the emerging field of EEG-based authentication systems, highlighting their theoretical advancements and practical applicability. We conducted a systematic review of the existing literature, followed by an experimental evaluation to assess the feasibility, limitations, and scalability of these systems in real-world scenarios. Data were collected from nine subjects using various approaches. Our results indicate that the CNN model achieved the highest accuracy of 99%, while Random Forest (RF) and Gradient Boosting (GB) classifiers also demonstrated strong performance with 94% and 93%, respectively. In contrast, classifiers such as Support Vector Machine (SVM) and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) displayed significantly lower effectiveness, underscoring their limitations in capturing the complexities of EEG data. The findings suggest that EEG-based authentication systems have significant potential to enhance security measures, offering a promising alternative to traditional methods and paving the way for more robust and user-friendly authentication solutions.

Keywords: electroencephalography (EEG); brain–computer interface (BCI); authentication; event-related potentials (ERP); convolutional neural networks (CNN).

Journal: Sensors
Publication Year: 2025
DOI: View Paper