NFB Lab

NFB Lab allows you to configure the design and conduct an experiment in real-time EEG/MEG paradigm.

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Installation

Prerequisites: python 3, pip.
Note: depending on how you have installed python, pip may or may not be available by default. If installed from python.org, there is no need to install pip separately. Otherwise, please consult pip documentation.

Install NFB Lab by running this command in your terminal:

pip install https://github.com/bioelectric-interfaces/nfb/archive/refs/heads/master.zip

Installing NFB Lab for developers

Prerequisites: python 3, pip, git, optionally conda.
If you would like to separate NFB Lab from other packages on the system, consider installing it in a virtual enviroment, using tools such as venv or conda. For example, if using conda, create and activate a new environment by running these commands first:

conda create -n nfb python pip
conda activate nfb

Regardless of whether or not you are using a virtual environment, clone this repository and install the package in editable mode by running:

git clone https://github.com/bioelectric-interfaces/nfb
cd nfb
pip install -e .

Editable mode will allow you to make changes to the repository and observe them when running NFB Lab.

Running the experiment designer

After installation, NFB Lab can be run from anywhere by using this command (when using a virtual environment, it has to be active):

pynfb

If you are experiencing sudden application crashes, you may wish to launch NFB Lab in debug mode:

pynfb-d

Or from the folder you installed it in:

python pynfb/main.py

If you need to use NFB Lab without a console, or run it from anywhere and distribute it, the best option is to freeze it into an executable.

Freezing

NFB supports building as an executable, using the pyinstaller module. To use it, first install nfb with freeze addon:

pip install -e .[freeze]

Then build the executable from the included spec file (this might take some time):

pyinstaller freeze.spec

The executable can then be found in the dist folder.

Commandline arguments

NFB supports commandline arguments to streamline opening and running experiments:

usage: pynfb [-h] [-x] [file]

positional arguments:
  file           open an xml experiment file when launched (optional)

optional arguments:
  -h, --help     show this help message and exit
  -x, --execute  run the experiment without configuring (requires file to be specified)

For example, to open an XML file with an experiment that you designed from command line, specify the path to it like so:

pynfb your-experiment-file.xml

To run the experiment without configuring, use the -x or --execute option:

pynfb -x your-experiment-file.xml

Refer to the documentation for more information on working with NFB Lab.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Center for Bioelectric Interfaces of the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, RF Government grant, ag. No. 14.641.31.0003.