Over the last few decades, the Brain-Computer Interfaces have been gradually making their way to the epicenter of scientific interest. Many scientists from all around the world have contributed to the state of the art in this scientific domain by developing numerous tools and methods for brain signal acquisition and processing. Such a spectacular progress would not be achievable without accompanying technological development to equip the researchers with the proper devices providing what is absolutely necessary for any kind of discovery as the core of every analysis: the data reflecting the brain activity. The common effort has resulted in pushing the whole domain to the point where the communication between a human being and the external world through BCI interfaces is no longer science fiction but nowadays reality. In this work we present the most relevant aspects of the BCIs and all the milestones that have been made over nearly 50-year history of this research domain. We mention people who were pioneers in this area as well as we highlight all the technological and methodological advances that have transformed something available and understandable by a very few into something that has a potential to be a breathtaking change for so many. Aiming to fully understand how the human brain works is a very ambitious goal and it will surely take time to succeed. However, even that fraction of what has already been determined is sufficient e.g., to allow impaired people to regain control on their lives and significantly improve its quality. The more is discovered in this domain, the more benefit for all of us this can potentially bring.

Babinski Specialist Psychiatric Healthcare Center Outpatient Addiction Treatment 91 229 Lodz Poland

Department of Biomedical Engineering College of Engineering University of Babylon 51001 Babylon Iraq

Department of Computing and Information Systems University of Greenwich London SE10 9LS UK

Department of Cybernetics and Biomedical Engineering VSB Technical University Ostrava FEECS 708 00 Ostrava Poruba Czech Republic

Department of Theoretical Basis of BioMedical Sciences and Medical Informatics Nicolaus Copernicus University Collegium Medicum 85 067 Bydgoszcz Poland

Faculty of Electrical Engineering Automatic Control and Informatics Opole University of Technology 45 758 Opole Poland

Institute of Philosophy Kazimierz Wielki University 85 092 Bydgoszcz Poland

The Society for the Substitution Treatment of Addiction Medically Assisted Recovery 85 791 Bydgoszcz Poland

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