If you are attending this years Human Brain Mapping conference in Montreal, Canada, please visit our booth (#206) and you'll meet BrainVoyager experts answering your questions! We are thrilled to show you several new applications and major updates of existing software, including BrainVoyager 23 with an amazing new volume renderer (see figure below). For the first time, BrainVoyager natively supports Apple Silicon hardware with Metal GPU performance that enables energy-efficient reproducible analyses of large datasets, beautiful real-time renderings and integration of native (arm64) Python as well as accelerated deep learning using TensorFlow. Because of the similarities between M1/M2 iPads and M1/M2 laptop and desktop Macs, desktop-quality BrainVoyager software will also be released for tablets - at our booth we demonstrate, for example, the beta version of BrainViewer for iPad with a touch-driven user interface. Like the recently released Brain Tutor 3D app, BrainViewer not only runs on all major desktop and mobile platforms but it also comes as a WebApp (based on WebAssembly) allowing to launch the app from most web browsers without installing anything. The BrainViewer app not only supports BrainVoyager files but also NIfTI and GIfTI files in a powerful app that can be used to visualise volume and surface datasets with overlaid regions, maps and invoked time courses. The app is so general that it can be used by BrainVoyager users as well as users of other software packages to inspect datasets and to create beautiful publication-ready figures and movies.

We also highlight our latest open source contributions to the software LayNII for state-of-the-art laminar and columnar fMRI analysis. We also present Turbo-BrainVoyager 4.4 that now supports multi-slice DICOM files (used increasingly by SIEMENS) and NIfTI files (used by PHILIPS). TBV 4.4 also comes with a new real-time data simulator that is also included in the Turbo-BrainVoyager 4.4 EDU version. Our EDU products are the ideal tools to teach (e.g. in courses) and (self-)learn how to analyse and visualise structural and functional neuroimaging data from basic to advanced tools including scripting and programming using Python. In our partnership with NIRx (booth #202), we are excited to present the latest version of our real-time fNIRS software Turbo-Satori and a major new version of our fNIRS offline software Satori that now integrates calls into Python tools, for example, in graphically designed data processing workflows.

Tags: Conference

Brain Tutor 3D is now available as a Web App - try it out here! Brain Tutor 3D is the first app that we put on the web, which is made possible by the impressive WebAssembly (Wasm) infrastructure that allows to compile C++ (and other languages) to a cross-platform highly efficient byte code that runs in all major desktop and mobile web browsers. Wasm supports WebGL/OpenGL, which is ideal for BrainVoyager related software that is based on efficient 3D graphics rendering. There are also limitations. As opposed to an installed app, the app is downloaded each time when visiting the page on the web (it is usually kept in memory by the web browser as long as the respective browser page is not closed). While the whole software is packaged in a small wasm file of about 60 MB, it will take a few seconds until the file is downloaded and the web app is running. If one uses an app more than a few times, it may be a better option to download the corresponding desktop or mobile app. Wasm apps are also 32-bit programs (the desktop and mobile versions are 64-bit apps) posing restrictions on handling very large datasets. Wasm apps can be employed easily on the Web, which has the advantage that it runs by clicking on a link instead of downloading and installing different applications compiled for specific operating systems. On the developer side, web employment is easy avoiding creation of platform-specific installers as downloadable packages or as apps for App Stores that come with many extra requirements. Despite avoiding approval from App Stores, WebAssembly apps are secure to use since they run in a sandbox of the browser. This makes it more challenging to use files from the local file system for processing or visualization. This is, however, possible as long as the user explicitly selects (and thereby approves) files from the local system for uploading into the sandbox. This will allow our next web app, Brain Viewer, to process your custom BrainVoyager files but also NIfTI, GIfTI and other files in a powerful web application - stay tuned!

Tags: Brain Tutor

If you are attending this years in-person Human Brain Mapping conference in Glasgow, please visit our booth (#13) and you'll meet BrainVoyager experts answering your questions! We are thrilled to show you several new applications and major updates of existing software, including BrainVoyager 23 with an amazing new volume renderer and, for the first time, a real-time path tracer producing stunning visualizations. BrainVoyager 23 fully supports Apple Silicon hardware with Metal GPU performance that enables efficient reproducible data analyses, beautiful real-time renderings and integration of native (arm64) Python as well as accelerated deep learning using both TensorFlow and PyTorch. Because of the similarities between M1/M2 iPads and M1/M2 laptop and desktop Macs, desktop-quality BrainVoyager software will also soon be released for iPad - at our booth we demonstrate, for example, BrainVoyager Viewer for iPad with a touch-driven user interface.

We also highlight our latest open source contributions to the software LayNII for next generation laminar fMRI analysis. We also demonstrate advances of Turbo-BrainVoyager such as support for NIfTI files and a new real-time data simulator that is also included in the new Turbo-BrainVoyager EDU product. Our EDU products are the ideal tools to teach (e.g. in courses) and (self-)learn how to analyse and visualise structural and functional neuroimaging data from basic to advanced tools including scripting and programming using Python. In our partnership with NIRx, we are excited to present the latest version of our real-time fNIRS software Turbo-Satori and the new software Satori for multi-session, multi-subject fNIRS group analyses featuring advanced analysis and visualisation options. In our partnership with Mag & More, we are excited to show the latest features of the new PowerMAGView! 2.0 release.

If you like augmented reality apps, try out the Scan My Brain app, which is fun to use and teaches knowledge about the brain (see screenshot below from the developer); you can also try it out yourself on your iPhone (or iPad) - just get the app from the AppStore using the download link of the public beta version:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/SwsYY3uS
If not yet installed, you will be asked to first load the 'TestFlight' app, which is Apple's tool to distribute beta versions.

Tags: Conference

We are happy to announce the availability of BrainVoyager 22.0, which is a major release introducing important new features. The two most outstanding new features are BV Notebooks for reproducible data analysis and an advanced cortex segmentation tool that is based on a deep neural network (DNN) with an advanced "Tiramisu" architecture. These as well as other new features, enhancements and bug fixes are described in the release notes and the updated 22.0 User's Guide.
The DNN segmentation tool has been developed for high-resolution sub-millimeter data to segment grey matter with very high accuracy both along the inner (white-grey) and outer (pial) boundary. The high-quality segmentations are especially suited for cortical thickness measurements and mesoscopic (laminar and columnar) fMRI analyses.
The introduced BV Notebooks offer (script) programmers a means to write Python code to document performed analysis steps. BV Notebooks are inspired by Jupyter notebooks but they offer many BrainVoyager-specific features. Probably the most unique feature is that they support reproducible analyses also for users that do not (want to) program by converting essential GUI actions into corresponding code. Both manual as well as auto-generated code can be easily enriched with images, animations, rendered Markdown text as well as embedded BrainVoyager viewers enabling any BrainVoyager user to create rich documents. For a more detailed description of BV Notebooks, please read the BrainVoyager 22 release blog. To install BrainVoyager 22.0 for your operating system, go directly to the Downloads page.

Tags: BrainVoyager, Python, Segmentation, Notebooks, Deep Learning

If you are attending this years online Human Brain Mapping conference please visit our virtual booth and you'll meet BrainVoyager experts answering your questions! We are thrilled to show you the upcoming BrainVoyager 22.0 version featuring deep-learning based segmentation of high-resolution anatomical bran scans as well as BrainVoyager Notebooks offering an innovative approach to transparent and reproducible data analysis for Python programmers as well as for non-programmers! We will also show you the released BrainVoyager EDU version that can be used free of charge for enabled (BIDS) datasets; BrainVoyager EDU is the ideal software to teach (e.g. in courses) and (self-)learn how to analyse and visualise structural and functional neuroimaging data from basic to advanced tools including scripting and programming using Python. We are also excited to tell you more about our real-time fMRI software Turbo-BrainVoyager 4.0 that features MNI support, GPU based high-quality motion correction and tools important for clinical neurofeedback studies. In our partnership with NIRx we are excited to present the latest version of our real-time fNIRS software Turbo-Satori and a first look at our upcoming offline software Satori for multi-session group analyses and advanced analysis and visualisation options.