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| Review 3 of BioImage Suite on Aug 28, 2008 |
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| Ratings/Long-term Prospects Comments: | Overall -- The tool is well documented and clearly states what it can and cannot do. The Bioimagesuite manual is a very good resource and the authors seem to have spent a considerable amount of effort in documenting its functionalities. Installation -- The installation is extremely easy and works very well. I've used it primarily on windows and it has worked perfectly since I installed it. Documentation -- The documentation available was much more than I had expected. The authors have provided a pdf and html version for easy browsing. Long-term -- This tool has great long term prospects since they seem to constantly add functionality that is useful to the fMRI community. The authors need to make the tool a bit more streamlined and help users do what they intend to do. Feature Requests -- I think the user interface caters to a wide variety of their users and so making easy to use based on the need of the user might be one thing to consider. |
| Other Comments/Similar Tools: | Similar Tool/Resource -- I have used Slicer in the past, but I prefer Bioimagesuite's focused approach better. We have also used AFNI and continue to use it for some other methods. |
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| Review 2 of BioImage Suite on Jul 16, 2008 |
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| Ratings/Long-term Prospects Comments: | Overall -- I use this tool primarily for brain registration and electrode localization in epilepsy patients undergoing invasive monitoring. It takes a bit of practice, but once you get used to it the tool works remarkably well. I have not found anything else out there that allows this type of work to be done a personal computer. It is a relatively logical and easy to use interface that has been pretty stable on both Windows Vista and XP operating systems. Installation -- Installation was simple and easy even for both Windows platforms mentioned above. Documentation -- Documentation is pretty good for all of the basic functions and they just released .pdf versions of relevant manuals. There are so many features that perfect documentation is likely impossible at this point, but support has answered every question I have had quickly and comprehensively. Long-term -- This tool has the potential to be remarkably useful especially in the epilepsy population where the trend is moving towards fMRI assesment of language and memory. The Data Tree module allows for easy overlay of functional data with anatmoic data as well as surface electrode data. I see this software helping significantly with the merging of different modalities used for cortical mapping in epilepsy patients. |
| Other Comments/Similar Tools: | Similar Tool/Resource -- N/A Tool/Resource Transition -- N/A |
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| Review 1 of BioImage Suite on May 19, 2008 |
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| Ratings/Long-term Prospects Comments: | Overall -- Skull stripping is yet another use of the rather lacking BET algorithm, but this functionality is actually just a piggy-back on your own FSL installation, which also means its only possible in Unix. Installation -- Installs cleanly in Windows XP, but with the irritating, unnecessary limitation of not functioning correctly when installed in a path containing spaces (e.g. Program Files). Uninstalls without error, but also without removing all its files... Long-term -- Appears to duplicate functionality available in far more mature and already widely-adopted software packages. I don't see a unique contribution. |
