Event Abstract

A Free And Open Source BCI System In Python

  • 1 Berlin Institute of Technology, Germany

The following work describes our free and open source Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) System in Python. A general BCI system consists of three parts: A signal acquisition part, a signal processing part and some means for feedback and stimulus presentation. Accordingly, our software system consists of three parts as well: Mushu (http://github.com/venthur/mushu) is a signal acquisition library and responsible for getting neurophysiological data from a source (e.g. EEG, NIRS, or fMRI) and returning it in a data format suitable for the rest of the processing pipeline. Wyrm (http://github.com/venthur/wyrm) is a signal processing toolbox for off-line analysis and visualization of neurophysiological data and running online experiments. Wyrm is applicable to a broad range of neurophysiological problems, as it implements many different algorithms, including standard signal processing algorithms, advanced filtering algorithms like the Common Spatial Patterns (CSP), analysis methods like single-trial analysis, multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) and machine learning algorithms like the Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), and many more. All methods are usable in an off-line setting where the whole data is available or in an online setting where the data is streamed and has to be processed in real-time. Pyff (http://github.com/venthur/pyff) is a framework for the feedback and stimulus presentation which comes with many standard BCI paradigms already implemented. All three components combined form a complete BCI system, capable of running real-time online BCI experiments as well as off-line data analysis and visualization for various neurophysiological data. Through usage of well defined interfaces, each of the three components can also be used stand-alone in a different setting. The whole system runs on all major operating systems, is written in Python, freely available, and is open source software licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Keywords: BCI, python, Signal processing, Brain-Computer Interfacing, Toolbox, Signal acquisition

Conference: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.

Presentation Type: Poster

Topic: Methods Development

Citation: Venthur B and Blankertz B (2015). A Free And Open Source BCI System In Python. Conference Abstract: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00406

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Received: 19 Feb 2015; Published Online: 24 Apr 2015.

* Correspondence: Mr. Bastian Venthur, Berlin Institute of Technology, Berlin, Germany, bastian.venthur@tu-berlin.de