title: Fiswidgets: a graphical computing environment for neuroimaging analysis.
abstract: Current fMRI neuroimaging software programs offer the researcher a wealth of analysis methods and tools. However, the incompatibilities in user interface, data format, and computing environment in these tools make it difficult if not impossible for most researchers to take advantage of the full set of resources available for neuroimaging analyses. We describe a graphical computing environment, Functional Imaging Software Widgets (fiswidgets), which was developed to address these interoperability and usability problems. This environment provides a desktop style framework into which 100 subcomponents from a number of widely used fMRI analysis software packages (e.g., AFNI, AIR) are incorporated. It is an open-source, extensible environment available for reuse and modification by other software developers. A discussion of the design criteria (open architecture, modularity, wrapper technology, commercial utilities) that support such loosely integrative computing environments, and the problems entailed in maintaining them (development overhead, distribution logistics, format incompatibilities, graphics vs scripting tradeoffs, and appropriate acknowledgment of software developers) follows.
authors.affiliation: University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. fissell+@pitt.edu
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fissell
authors.forename: Eugene
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tseytlin
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.forename: Karthickeyan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Iyer
authors.forename: Cameron S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D003196:Computer Graphics; D003199:Computer Systems; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation; D008838:Microcomputers; D009420:Nervous System / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D011381:Programming Languages; D012984:Software; D014584:User-Computer Interface