Recently, the Institute of Medical Engineering and Translational Medicine of Tianjin University, the Tianjin Brain Science and Brain-like Research Center, the Ministry of Education's Intelligent Medical Engineering Research Center, along with Suishi (Tianjin) Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. and CEC CLOUD BRAIN, jointly launched MetaBCI, China’s first comprehensive open-source software platform in the field of brain-computer interface.
Brain-computer interface (BCI) technology signifies establishing direct central information interaction between humans and machines. The two mainstream international BCI software platforms are primarily based on the C++ language and MATLAB commercial software, respectively presenting issues such as high programming requirements and long development cycles, or high costs and restricted regulations. The industry urgently needs an efficient and practical open-source software platform to lower technical barriers, reduce R&D costs, shorten product cycles, and promote implementation.
The MetaBCI platform, led by Tianjin University, is developed using Python, an efficient and user-friendly open-source programming language widely adopted internationally. It offers extensive opportunities for collaboration and application. The basic architecture of MetaBCI consists of five core modules: paradigm presentation unit, data acquisition unit, signal processing unit, user feedback unit, and machine execution unit. It enables the complete processing flow of inducing, acquiring, analyzing, and converting users' brain intentions within the Python environment. Currently, MetaBCI integrates 14 brain-computer interface (BCI) source datasets and various classic BCI paradigms, covering dozens of advanced BCI decoding algorithms and specialized intelligent computing models. It also innovatively designs a calling interface for BCI decoding algorithms. After open-sourcing, the platform's datasets and algorithm types are expected to expand and improve further.
In May 2021, the beta version of MetaBCI's signal processing unit was released in advance on the world's largest code hosting platform. After trial use by multiple research institutions both in China and internationally, it was stated that the platform achieves automation in data reading and processing while ensuring researchers the flexibility to modify key steps independently.