The new Analyzer 2.3.0 – 25 years of excellence and still going strong
by Dipl.-Psych. Michael Hoppstädter, Dr.-Ing. Kidist Mideksa and Dr. Bastian Schledde
(Brain Products Scientific Support Team)
Analyzer 2.3.0 comes with a mix of significant updates to its underlying platform components and a handful of minor improvements to selected modules. In the following, we want to give you an overview of the most important updates, while we invite you to check the Release Notes for the detailed list of all changes.
As you can imagine, being 25 years old means that our Analyzer software has reached quite a mature age – and so have some of its underlying platform and interface components which are deprecated and also not supported by Microsoft anymore. Thus, it was time to add some fresh code for Analyzer’s core in order to keep the machinery running and to make sure that Analyzer stays a steady analysis tool for many more years.
Figure 1: When you start Analyzer 2.3.0, you’ll be greeted by a redesigned splash screen.
Overview
Technical updates of platform components
One of the major changes in this release is the update of the .NET Framework to version 4.8. .NET Framework sits at the heart of Analyzer’s core machinery and ensures the seamless integration with Windows®. Up to now, it was required to install .NET Framework 4.0 for Analyzer 2, and in case you were using the Analyzer Video Add In, version 3.5 was required as well. However, these versions are now outdated, and .NET Framework 4.0 is no longer supported by Microsoft.
With this update, these components are no longer required. Instead, .NET Framework 4.8 will be automatically installed together with Analyzer 2.3.0 (if not pre-installed; see also section on new installer logic).
Another big change in the core is in DirectX, which you might know as a common library for handling multimedia applications. Until now, our 3D Head View and the Analyzer Video Add In depended on a legacy version of Managed DirectX, which also required a separate installation.
We now updated to DirectX 11. As supported Windows® systems have either this version or version 12 (which is backward compatible) pre-installed, it is no longer necessary to install DirectX separately for 3D Head View and Analyzer Video.
These changes in the underlying platforms and multimedia interfaces required a lot of adaptations in Analyzer’s code to ensure that everything will still work as before – or even better!
Exciting news: simplified installation process in Analyzer 2.3.0!
The new installer for Analyzer 2.3.0 now includes all of the required components: .NET Framework 4.8, Microsoft Visual C++ 2022 Redistributable x86, and the Sentinel Run-time Environment. These prerequisites will automatically be installed with Analyzer, saving you the hassle of manual installation. As a result, it reduces setup time and effort, allowing you to get up and running with your software.
This streamlined process is especially beneficial for single license setups, where Analyzer is installed in the same machine where the dongle is plugged in. For network license setups, where Analyzer may not be installed on the license hosting machine, manual installation of the Sentinel Run-time Environment (formerly dongle driver) is required on the server. Don’t worry though, we provide the necessary instructions and installation file on our website or the Brain Products Application Suite USB.
With this specially customized version of the Sentinel Run-time Environment, updating your dongle is now a breeze as it comes pre-configured to seamlessly connect to our Brain Products online customer portal. For instance, if you have purchased an add-on license, the update procedure will be much simpler as you can go straight to the online portal.
Farewell to Windows® 7 and 8
It is time to say goodbye to the good old Windows® 7 and 8 operating systems as they are no longer supported by Microsoft. Analyzer 2.3.0 will still be compatible with Windows® 8.1 and more recent operating systems.
What’s behind the interface of Analyzer?
Have you ever wondered about the machinery behind Analyzer’s user interface? Analyzer 2 uses DevExpress® WinForms UI Controls (v10.1) to bring you that sleek and intuitive interface. Now it’s time for an upgrade to version 22.6! This was necessary due to the deprecation of .NET Framework 4.0 (check out the details in the section on updates to platform components).
As a result, you’ll only see some minor tweaks to the user interface. The upgrade comes with additional controls particularly on the docking panel. Imagine you are working with multiple monitors, and you want to move the floating docking window to the second screen while keeping the main window on the first screen. Instead of tediously resizing the floating window by dragging its borders, you can now use the Maximize button for a one-click solution.
Let’s look at 2 examples where this comes in handy:
To change docked panels to float, simply right-click on its title bar and choose Float from the context menu (see Figure 2). Similarly, to Dock or Close the maximized window, choose the desired option from the context menu.
Figure 2: Docking panel with new
context menu and Maximize button.
Visualization tools – 3D Head View
3D data visualization has undergone a significant number of updates.
Figure 3: 3D Head View’s default rotation angle – old (left) vs new (right).
Synchronized video playback – Analyzer Video Add In
Synchronized playback of video and EEG data that have been recorded together is achievable through the Video Add In. The Add In officially supports two video file formats, namely, the .asf videos recorded using Axis network cameras and .VisionVideo files recorded using legacy cameras.
To facilitate loading and playing these videos, the deprecated Managed DirectX (check out the details in the section on updates to platform components) has been replaced with Axis Media Control for .asf videos and DirectShow® for .VisionVideo files. This means, depending on the type of video files you are working with, you will need to perform a dedicated installation. Detailed installation instructions can be found on our website or the Brain Products Application Suite USB (Components\Video_Components).
The Add In now integrates a set of robust validations to provide more intuitive messages to the user. This makes it easier for you to identify and resolve any issues that may arise during playback, such as missing codecs, absence of a license for the Analyzer Video Add In, and other plausible factors that could hinder video playback.
Thanks to the enhanced navigation mechanism, you can now seamlessly navigate (play, pause, stop, re-play) through the EEG and/or video data. This becomes very handy when you need to jump to a specific video frame and inspect the EEG waveform at that moment and vice-versa.
Updates to Analyzer Solutions
With the Merge Channels Solution that is now available on our website we offer an efficient and seamless approach to hyperscanning analysis with BrainVision Analyzer. This Solution merges data from multiple History Nodes, creating a combined dataset across simultaneous recordings. It provides features such as template mode processing, marker transfer options, offset correction, and synchronization error tests. Whether you’re working with hyperscanning or multi-modal recordings, the Merge Channels Solution enables you to combine data and perform connectivity analysis across datasets with ease.
In addition, we are excited to introduce the revamped Select Trials Solution, which is a great help for everyone who needs flexible segment selection capabilities. This highly requested functionality allows you to streamline your analysis by selecting segments based on specific ranges, random selection, manually entering segment numbers, or importing them from external files. Furthermore, the Select Trials Solution offers an option to respect Bad Intervals and to swap between segment selection and removal.
Figure 4: The interface of the new Select Trials Solution.
With these new Solutions we hope to facilitate a more precise and tailored approach to our customers’ data analysis with BrainVision Analyzer 2.
We hope that you will enjoy working with our newest update to BrainVision Analyzer 2. If you have any questions about Analyzer 2.3.0 or if you need support for your data analysis, please don’t hesitate to write us at support@brainproducts.com.