Brite Ultra: Artinis' Mass fNIRS Hyperscanning System

Artinis and NIRx put out a new demo video for Brite Ultra this month, 45 minutes walking through the system running with a full group of participants.

What Brite Ultra is

Brite Ultra is Artinis' hyperscanning system: up to 30 wearable Brite devices, worn by 30 participants, recording at the same time. It comes as a package rather than a single unit, in tiers of 12, 24 or 30 devices, with a connection hub and touchscreen, neoprene headbands, a PortaSync synchroniser and the accessories needed to run a group session. One piece of software, Brite Connect Ultra, connects up to 30 Brite Ultra devices and 10 PortaSync units and writes everything into a single measurement file.

The session splits into two roles. A research coordinator assigns devices to groups from the hub monitor. Research assistants each work a tablet, pick their assigned group, and check signal quality for their participants before the coordinator starts the recording. Data comes out synchronized across every device and exports to .snirf.

PortaSync is what makes this more than an fNIRS-only tool. It syncs events across Brite Ultra and other modalities, EEG included, so a group study is not locked into a single measurement type.

Where it fits

A lab running standard single-participant fNIRS does not need this, and neither does a two-person hyperscanning pair. Individual Brite devices synced through OxySoft cover four or five participants for less money and far less setup. Brite Ultra is built for the scale where managing 30 laptops by hand would sink the study before it started: classrooms, sports teams, control rooms, cockpits, any naturalistic setting with a whole group in the room.

What is coming

Two additions are on the way: LSL sync, so Brite Ultra can stream into the same Lab Streaming Layer pipeline a lab already runs for EEG or eye tracking, and Satori compatibility for the analysis side. Neither is live yet. Both close a gap for labs that are already running multimodal setups and do not want a second, separate pipeline just for the hyperscanning data.

NBT represents Artinis and NIRx in Israel. Contact us if a group hyperscanning setup is something your lab needs to plan.