ABSTRACT

In this chapter, we highlight relevant characteristics of BCI software, discuss the importance of these characteristics in different contexts of BCI research, and document the important impact of BCI software on productivity. The central purpose of BCI software is to facilitate implementation, verification, and dissemination of a wide range of BCI approaches. To do this, BCI software needs to satisfy complex technical demands across a wide array of scientific, clinical, and commercial investigations. BCI software can be implemented either from scratch, using low- or high-level programming environments and toolboxes, or on top of preexisting BCI software platforms. We assign contemporary BCI software into these categories and investigate their impact on the field of BCI research. Our results demonstrate that only BCI2000 and OpenViBE have enjoyed sustained development and widespread dissemination and have had a strong impact on productivity of the whole field of BCI research.