AnyWave:Faq

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) about AnyWave. If you don't have an answer to your question reading the Documentation, you may find useful information here.

Where to get the documentation?

The user guide is available here : http://meg.univ-amu.fr/AnyWave/AnyWave_UserGuide.pdf

See also the Wiki parts dedicated to developers: Developer's corner

Plug-ins

What is a plug-in?

AnyWave uses external modules called plug-ins, that are loaded at startup and extend the functionalities of the application.
Depending on the platform, plug-ins are files with different extensions.
On Windows systems plug-ins are .dll files where on Mac OS X systems the extension is .dylib. Linux version of AnyWave will use plugin with .so extension.

There are several types of plug-ins used by AnyWave:
- Reader plug-ins are responsible of reading data file formats.
- Writer plug-ins are responsible of writing data to a data file format.
- Signal processing plug-ins will run some processing on data and present or not the results in AnyWave.
- Display plug-ins are responsible of displaying specific data type. Typically, the results computed by signal processing plug-ins.

How to install a plug-in

When installing AnyWave some plug-ins are also installed, allowing to read file formats and allowing to do processing on data.
Those plug-ins are located in a Plugin folder:

• On Windows and Linux systems the folder is called Plugins and is located in the AnyWave folder.
• On Mac systems, the folder is called Anywave_Plugins and is installed in the /Applications folder.

Adding a plug-in is done by copying the plug-in file in that folder. However, that will required administrator privileges.

How to install user plug-ins

One other way to install plug-ins is to copy them into the user's home directory.

Indeed, AnyWave will create a AnyWave folder in the user's home directory:

• On Windows that will be someting like: "My Documents\AnyWave" or "Documents\AnyWave".
• On Linux it can be at /home/user/AnyWave
• on Mac systems it will be located at /Users/user/AnyWave

This AnyWave folder will contain several other folders. The one usefull here is called Plugins.

Copy user plug-ins file in that directory and AnyWave will load them the next time the user launches it.

MATLAB plug-in

AnyWave offers the possibility to run signal processing plug-ins written with the MATLAB programming language.
There are two ways to run MATLAB code as plug-ins:

• You may have a MATLAB Compiled code as a standalone application.
• You may have a MATLAB scripted plug-in which is simply MATLAB code.

MATLAB Compiled Plugin

A MATLAB Compiled plugin is a standalone application that AnyWave could launch and communicate with.
To build that application the MATLAB Compiler is required as well as a C++ Compiler.
Follow the instructions on the developer's corner page to see how to write a MATLAB plugin for AnyWave.

MATLAB Scripted Plugin

If you are a mighty MATLAB programmer and thus have MATLAB installed on your computer, you may use and develop a MATLAB Scripted plugin.
A MATLAB Scripted plugin is a MATLAB function that will be called by AnyWave.
It is possible to use a MATLAB Scripted plugin written by someone else just by installing it in AnyWave.

How to install a MATLAB Plugin

There are two locations where AnyWave will look for MATLAB plug-ins during startup:
First, AnyWave will look for plugins into the Plugins (Anywave_plugins on Mac OS X) folder.
As this folder is installed along with AnyWave in the system default application path, it is not advised to add user plug-ins into that folder.
The easier way to add user plug-ins is to use the User folder created by AnyWave at first launch.

Find the user plugins directory

Look at the use home directory of your operating system and you should see a folder called AnyWave.
Within that folder, some other folders should be present. The Plugins directory holds the different C++ plug-ins you want to add to AnyWave.
For MATLAB plugins, you may have to create a subfolder named MATLAB into Plugins. Thus, on Unices system the path to MATLAB plugin should be like:
/home/user/AnyWave/Plugins/MATLAB
where on Windows the path should be:
My Documents\AnyWave\Plugins\MATLAB

Copy your MATLAB plugins into the right directory and launch AnyWave.
A MATLAB plugin is a directory containing several files. For more detail see the section How to write a MATLAB plug-in

Python plug-ins

This feature is under complete re-development. Please, subscribe to the google group to keep in touch.

File formats

AnyWave can read and/or write to different file formats depending on the available plug-ins.

For EEG data the following formats are supported for reading:

• Neuroscan (.cnt)
• Micromed (.trc)
• Electrode Array (.eab)
• EDF/BDF (.eeg)
• Brainvision Analyser (.vhdr)
• ADES (.ades) AnyWave simple format.

For MEG data the following formats are supported for reading:

• 4DNI
• CTF
• ADES (.ades) AnyWave simple format.

It is also possible to export to the following formats:

• Brainvision Analyser (.vhdr)
• ADES (.ades) AnyWave simple format.

ADES format

This is a simple file format used mostly to exchange data between different software. This is NOT the official AnyWave format but just a media used for exchanging between software.

Here is a complete documentation of the ADES file format