Section: Partnerships and Cooperations

Regional Initiatives

Université Côte d'Azur projects

Tech-ICOPA

Participants : Maureen Clerc, Théodore Papadopoulo, Sofiane Guebba, Marie-Hélène Soriani [CHU Nice] , Mariane Bruno [CHU Nice] , Violaine Guy [CHU Nice] .

Duration: 24 months

Improving autonomy is a main priority for people with disabilities. The goal of this project is to create a version usable by patients at their home of a brain-computer interface (BCI) research prototype system developped in our project-team. Making this technology actually usable in the context of pathology inducing severe disabilities such as ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) is a challenge. Tackling this challenge would allow both to meet the expectations of dependent people and to envision a more widespread use of this technology. To reach this goal, several technological advances and industrial developments are needed : (i) developing a suitable ergonomic headset, wireless, functional, comfortable, incorporating a miniaturized amplifier (Nice University Hospital Center - ALS Center), (ii) reducing the number of electrodes while maintaining signal quality (Inria - UCA) and (iii) testing the prolonged use of dry electrodes. In addition to these technological advances, the Tech-ICOPA translational project aims at (1) improving the use of BCI in communication, in accessing the digital world, home automation and robotics and (2) enhancing the use of BCI in commercial applications.

EPI-ANALYSE

Participants : Fabrice Duprat [IPMC] , Théodore Papadopoulo, Massimo Mantegazza [IPMC] , Maureen Clerc.

Duration: 12 months

This project aims at developing two complementary analysis softwares dedicated to the detection of epileptic seizures in mice in order to study epileptogenesis and the consequences of spontaneous seizures. The first software will be the adaptation to the mouse EEG of a powerful algorithm based on a dictionary learning method developed by our project-team. We will use video-EEG recordings already made and analyzed at the IPMC to optimize and validate the new software. This will allow a detailed analysis of seizures and events occurring between seizures (e.g., interictal spikes). The second software deals with the analysis of video recordings of 3 models of mice not recordable until now with EEG. The implementation, recordings and the analysis of the 3 models will be carried out during this project. A prototype of this software already exists at IPMC (in Python, with OpenCV) but the analysis algorithm must be optimized. Semi-automatic video analysis will allow an easy identification of temporal segments corresponding to epileptic seizures. This will help the experimenter to classify the behavioral severity of seizures.

MICADome

Participants : Maureen Clerc, Michel Pascal [CNR Nice] .

Duration: 24 months

The MICA-Dome project (MICA : Musique Interactive Côte d'Azur) initiates collaborative research between arts, science and humanities within a laboratory for exploring the sound spatialization in 3D, and its usage for an immersive music composition. For this MICADome will be equipped with a “Dome” of loudspeakers for 3D spatialization. Our team collaborates in MICADome in order to develop and anlyze EEG experiments to analyze the neural correlates of spatial auditory attention.