disorders
About Us
Authors of the mobile device for visual evoked potentials (VEPs) examination come from the Electrophysiological lab of the Department of Pathophysiology and Department of Biophysics, Charles University – Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové.
prof. MUDr. Miroslav Kuba, CSc., prof. Ing. Jan Kremláček, Ph.D. and Ing. František Vít, have used their wide experience (since 1980) with development of new variants of VEPs for clinical diagnostic applications and they have created first prototypes of the device fully on their own.
Charles University Innovations Prague s.r.o. (CUIP), a subsidiary of Charles University, with the support of the Center for Knowledge and Technology Transfer of Charles University (CPPT) and the Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové (LFKH), initiated cooperation for the purpose of co-development and commercialization of a portable device for recording visual evoked potentials, which will be used for experimental evaluation of brain activity, currently referred to as VEPpeak.
VEPpeak
Department of pathophysiology, Charles University – Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové, developed and patented 4-channel portable device called VEPpeak (formerly known as Eport 5) for examination of visual evoked potentials (VEP).
This device makes it possible to evaluate the visual pathway’s function and the central nervous system to diagnose their disorders. With this device, it is possible to assess the visual system’s condition outside the laboratory, including home self-examination, without professional staff.
The portable VEP device consists of a visual stimulator (a matrix of light-emitting diodes with adjustable luminance and colour), producing a large spectrum of monocular or binocular stimuli (including those with a cognitive task) and a recording part (based on a 4-channel EEG amplifiers). Two dry electrodes placed in a fixating belt of the headset record signal from the forehead and two additional recording electrodes can be freely located over an activated part of the brain cortex (the input of the amplifiers uses standard 1.5 mm touch-proof connectors).
The recorded cortical reactions are transmitted via an USB port to a PC for on-line processing, VEP display and their off-line evaluation. The device is equipped with a sensor of the background luminance (allowing an autonomic regulation of the stimulation luminance) and with a 3D accelerometer enabling rejection of the signal contaminated with artefacts caused by examinee’s movements.
- fully portable device (weight 390 grams)
- visual stimulator and EEG amplifiers are built in a plastic headset
- 4-channel low-noise EEG amplifiers with A/D converter (sampling frequency 1 kHz)
- two fixed dry recording electrodes located on the forehead not requiring any montage
- possibility to use up to four standard EEG electrodes (in any scalp location) with touch-proof connectors
- reference electrode and electrode for active reduction of noise (enables using of dry recording electrodes – patent CZ 302454) incorporated in one ear lobe clip
- built-in LED stimulator in the front vertically adjustable peak of the plastic headset – enables peripheral stimulation outside the central (working) part of the visual field for a longer VEP monitoring during a working activity (e.g. for a detection of fatigue)
- clip with a photocell for synchronization with an external visual stimulator (e.g. tablet)
- handheld button for measuring of the reaction time
- no need for a battery; the device t is powered via USB connection used for its control and VEP/ERP recordings
- device application interface is open and can be accessed and programmed from Matlab(TM)
- CE certification mark of conformity with health, safety, and environmental protection
- wide input range – besides VEP, ERP and EEG also ECG, EOG, EMG, ENG can be recorded
- device is ready for immediate VEP/ERP recording to PC – Win (no additional hardware/software components are needed)
- for visual or cognitive stimuli, device includes 2×16 RGB LEDs driven with millisecond precision; besides a pre-installed set of stimuli, users can program their own stimuli
- device registers continuously the surrounding light intensity, which can be used for automatic stimulus luminance control (allowing to keep about constant contrast of stimulation in various conditions)
- device includes an accelerometer to monitor head movements; VEPpeak software enables rejection of movement related artefacts
- two digital inputs allow connection of additional peripheral devices – e.g., synchronization of external stimulators (not only visual) or recording of the reaction time; VEPpeak software includes these options
- VEPpeak software enables evaluation of the recorded VEP/ERP, storage and comparison of the repeated recordings and printing of VEP/ERP protocols with the marked parameters
Abbreviations:
A/D – analog/digital convertor
EPort– device and software for VEP/ERP recording and evaluation
VEP – event related potential (wave P300)
ECG – electrocardiogram
EOG – electrooculogram
EMG – electromyogram
ENG – electronystagmogram
USB – universal serial bus
CE – certification mark of conformity with health, safety, and environmental protection standards for products sold within the European Economic Area
You will find a more detailed description for work with the VEPpeak device in the manual below on the website
EOG, EMG, ENG can be recorded
(sampling frequency 1 kHz)
(working) part of the visual field
for its control and VEP/ERP recordings
to any size as needed
The device obtained
the two significant awards:
Marmor Award for Clinical Innovation in Visual Electrophysiology
(2018 a 2020)
The VEPpeak device
(formerly known as Eport 5)
created with the support of:
project financed with State aid of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic under the GAMA Programme, no. TG01010108.
project Support for pre-seed activities of Charles University outside of Prague, CZ.1.05/3.1.00/13.0284
