Starting up with BrainAccess Board

This introductory tutorial demonstrates how to connect and stream data from BrainAccess devices using BrainAccess Board software together with its main functionality.

Bluetooth Pairing

Firstly, the BrainAccess device needs pairing with your computer via Bluetooth connection. After pairing the computer will remember the device and you won’t need to repeat this step again.

1. Push the power button on the BrainAccess device and hold for a couple of seconds, the blue LED should start breathing once the device is on.
2. Plug in the provided Bluetooth adapter to your computer, the drivers should install automatically. Skip this step if using an integrated or some other pre-installed Bluetooth adapter.
3. Find the ‘Bluetooth & other devices’ settings in Windows Search and open it. Click the ‘Add Bluetooth or other device’ icon and the BrainAccess device should appear on the list.

Connect to it and close the settings window. The device is now paired with your computer and you will not need to repeat this step again.

Connecting and Streaming

If you haven’t done this already, download the BrainAccess Board software from the Download Centre. Unpack it and install it on your computer.

Now, start the BrainAccess Board, and after some initialization an interactive web page will open. Follow the steps below to start streaming from the device.

1. Choose the ‘Configuration’ tab and the window as shown above will appear.
2. Select BrainAccess as the source for your devices.
3. Press ‘Scan for devices’ and after a while, all BrainAccess devices that are paired to the computer will appear on the list.
4. Select the device that you wish to connect to. Make sure that the device is turned on.
5. Press ‘Connect’ and after the connection is established a device tab should appear under the ‘Connected Devices’ list.

The data is now being streamed to the computer. You can press the graph button on the device tab which will open the BrainAccess Viewer app and will allow you to check the EEG and/or other sensor signals.

If you wish to stop streaming and disconnect from the device, simply press the ‘x’ button on the device tab. The Board will then disconnect from the device and the device tab will be removed from the list.

Adding more devices or LSL data streams

If you wish to add more BrainAccess devices simply select another device from the list and press ‘Connect’. After a successful connection, the device tab will be added to the ‘Connected Devices’ list.

Likewise, other data streams can be also collected by the BrainAccess through the Lab Streaming Layer (LSL). Select ‘Lab Streaming Layer’ as a source and a list of available LSL streams will be displayed. Choose a stream you wish to add and press ‘Connect’. The stream will then be added to the ‘Connected Device’ list emulating a ‘real’ device.

It is worth noting that all the data coming from devices and or streams are synchronized through LSL and can be recorded together using the Board’s data recorder (see ‘Data Recording’ section).

Device template and advanced Settings

When a certain BrainAccess device is selected from the device list a default device’s template is assigned to it. The default settings of the template can be changed in the ‘Advanced’ setup window shown below.

The template contains electroencephalograph to electrode location mapping, so if different electrode locations are used different channel labels can be assigned. The gain for each channel can be changed here, but care must be taken so that the channel does not saturate if a large gain is selected.  In addition, certain channels can be turned off here as well if not used in the recording.

After changing the settings the existing template can be updated or a new one created, which makes the switch between two different setups very easy. The newly created template will appear in the template list. Next time when connecting to the device a required template can be chosen which will have all the pre-saved settings.

Important! The template settings can only be changed before connecting to the device. If you have already connected to the device, first disconnect from the device before changing template settings.

Data Recording

The data stream from the device can be saved to the database using ‘Data Recorder’. Enter the required details such as file location and task name in the ‘Data Recorder’ section and then press ‘Start recording’. If there is more than one connected device then all the data streams from all the listed devices will be collected and saved to the file. The data is saved in an internal format, which could be later converted to standard EEG formats such as EEGlab, MNE_fiff, etc. using the ‘File Converter’ app.

Applications

BrainAccess Board comes with various apps that can be found under the ‘Applications’ tab. Most of the apps are free to use and include useful tools such as EEG Viewer, EEG data file converter, brainwave power monitor, and event-related potential visualizer. It has example apps for most BCI paradigms as well such as SSVEP and P300.