Brain computer interface (BCI) systems establish a direct communication between the brain and an external device. These systems can be used for entertainment, to improve the quality of life of patients and to control Virtual Reality applications, industrial machines, and robots. In the neuroscience field such as in neurorehabilitation, BCIs are integrated into controlled virtual environments used for the treatment of disability, for example, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and depression. Its aim is to promote a recovery of brain function lost due to a lesion through noninvasive brain stimulation (brain modulation) in a more accurate and faster manner than the traditional techniques. Neurorobotics combines BCIs with robotics aiming to develop artificial limbs, which can act as real members of human body being controlled from a brain-machine interface. With the advancement of a better understanding of how our brain works, new realistic computational algorithms are being considered, making it possible to simulate and model specific brain functions for the development of new Computational Intelligence algorithms and, finally, BCI for mobile devices/apps.

As an augmentative communication channel, BCI has already attracted considerable research interest thanks to recent advances in neurosciences, wearable biosensors, and data mining. However, to overcome numerous challenges BCI technology still requires research in high-performance and robust signal processing and machine learning algorithms to produce a reliable and stable control signal from nonstationary brain signals to allow development of real-life BCI systems usable across many individuals. Further improvements to BCI systems are necessary to ensure that they can meet the needs of specific user groups such as disabled or impaired people as well as common users.

This special issue focuses on recent advances and future trends in methods and applications of BCI systems evaluated in different fields of knowledge, such as neuroengineering, rehabilitation, psychology, pattern recognition, computational intelligence, machine learning, industrial engineering, control and automation engineering, and robotics. We are seeking theoretical, methodological, and particularly empirical papers dealing with different topics.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

Acquisition of brain signals
Brain signal processing algorithms
Virtual, augmented, and mixed realities
Automatic real time detection and diagnosis of disease
Neurorobotics
Mobile robot navigation
Smart home
Serious games and gamification
Hardware, software, and firmware
Communication protocols
Applications of BCI for education
BCI for entertainment
Privacy and security in BCI systems
BCI systems for independent and assisted living
Usability evaluation of BCI systems
Authors can submit their manuscripts through the Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/bmri/neuroscience/nsnbcis/.

Manuscript Due Friday, 31 March 2017
First Round of Reviews Friday, 23 June 2017
Publication Date Friday, 18 August 2017

Lead Guest Editor

Victor H. C. De Albuquerque, Universidade de Fortaleza, Fortaleza, Brazil
Guest Editors

Robertas Damaševičius, Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas, Lithuania
Nuno M. Garcia, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal
Plácido R. Pinheiro, Universidade de Fortaleza, Fortaleza, Brazil
Pedro P. R. Filho, Ciência e Tecnologia do Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil