User Reference:Operator Module

The operator module is the user interface seen by the experimentator. It allows to view and edit system parameters, save and load parameter files, and start and stop system operation.

Main Window

The Operator Module's Main Window

Operation Buttons

The main window contains four large buttons. These buttons correspond to the tasks that need to be performed during an experiment:

• Config

opens the configuration window,

• SetConfig

applies the current set of parameters to the system,

• Start

starts system operation,

• Quit

exits the system once the experiment has finished.

Not all buttons are functional all the time; availability of a function depends on system state, and is indicated by the button's state.

Function Buttons

There are four function buttons that execute Operator Scripts. Scripts and button captions may be configured freely from the preferences dialog.

Status Area

The status area, at the bottom of the main window, contains four fields. System status is displayed on the left, and module status is displayed in the three rightmost fields, in the natural order of core modules (Data Acquisition, Signal Processing, Application).

Main Menu Bar

File Menu

• Preferences...

opens the Preferences Dialog.

• Exit...

terminates BCI2000 after displaying a confirmation message. This menu entry is always available, even if the Quit button is dimmed.

View Menu

• States...

displays a window that lists the state variables currently available in the system.

• Operator Log

toggles visibility of the log window. The log window becomes automatically visible when there are error or warning messages; for informative messages, and debugging output, it is necessary to make it visible using this menu entry.

• Connection Info

toggles visibility of the connection information window. This window displays information whether connections between operator and core modules are established, network addresses, and the number of messages that have been transferred so far.

Help Menu

• About...

displays extensive information about the operator module's version number, the source code revision it was built from, and the time of the build. This information is also kept inside the OperatorVersion parameter on the system tab, and written into data files along with all system parameters.

Preferences Dialog

The Preferences Dialog

On the left side, the preferences dialog allows you to associate operator scripts with events, and on the top right, you may configure the main window's function buttons using operator script commands. Please see the User Reference:Operator Module Scripting page for scripting details.

On the bottom right, you may specify the global User Level to be one of beginner, intermediate, or advanced. When the user level is set to advanced, a similar ruler control is displayed for each individual parameter in the Parameter Configuration Dialog. For each parameter, its user level is compared to the global user level setting, and the parameter is displayed only if its user level is equal to or below the global setting. Thus, it is possible to simplify the configuration dialog for less experienced users, or for your own convenience, in sitations where full access to configuration options is not necessary. As a typical example, once you have set up a stimulation experiment, you will only change the SubjectName and SubjectRun parameters. Setting these two parameter's user levels to beginner, and leaving the other's at advanced, you may now switch the global user level to beginner, and will only see the two selected parameters displayed in the configuration dialog.

Parameter Configuration Window

The Parameter Configuration Window

On the left side, this window displays a number of register tabs that correspond to parameter sections. Clicking on a tab will display the parameters from the corresponding section.

Within a section, parameters are grouped according to subsections. In most cases, subsections correspond to individual filters; however, filters with a large number of parameters might choose to group them into subsections to make configuration easier. Within subsections, the order of parameter display depends on the order in which parameters are declared in a filter's constructor.

For single-valued parameters, an edit field is displayed that holds the parameter's value. This is also true for list parameters; there, list entries must be separated by white space. Within entries, space characters may be encoded as '%20'. For some parameters, drop-down menus, checkboxes, or chooser buttons are displayed to make it more convenient for the user to enter parameter values. (For programmers, this feature is explained on the Technical Reference:Parameter Definition page.) Matrix-valued parameters display a button to load or save a matrix in ASCII format, and an Edit button that opens up a #Matrix Editor Window.

Load/Save Parameters Configure Load/Save

Matrix Editor Window

The Matrix Editor Window

Visualization Windows

A Visualization Window

Visualization windows may be moved around, and remember their positions across sessions. For signal visualizations, the arrow keys and page up/page down keys may be used to scroll through channels. In a context menu, the following options are available:

• adjusting signal amplitude,
• choosing signal colors,
• choosing the number of signals displayed,
• applying highpass, lowpass, and notch filter combination to the displayed signal,
• switching between signal display as lines, and colored blocks.