Getting Started

This documentation contains guidance for developing applications with EMOTIV Cortex - the core piece of technology at EMOTIV which brings the brain computer interface to consumer.

The intended audience is anyone with some programming skills who wants to develop a third party application that interacts with an EMOTIV headset.

The Cortex API is built on JSON and WebSockets, making it easy to access from a variety of programming languages and platforms.

System requirements and supported platforms

Learn more about the system requirements and support platforms for Cortex.

Supported headsets

Currently, Cortex supports the following headsets:

Model	Firmware	Connection
EPOC	All	USB dongle
EPOC+	All	USB dongle, BLE 4.0
EPOC X	All	USB dongle, BLE 4.0 Bluetooth® 5.0 will be available with upcoming software and firmware updates
EPOC Flex	All	USB dongle, BLE 4.0
Insight	All	USB dongle, BLE 4.0
Insight 2.0	All	BLE 4.0
MN8	All	BLE 4.0
Flex	All	nRF dongle with BLE 5, BLE 5.x

USB dongle refers to the USB receiver that comes with EPOC+. If you need an additional receiver, you can purchase it from the EMOTIV store.

Currently, it is not possible to use a Flex or a MN8 headset with Cortex on Linux Ubuntu and Cortex on Raspberry Pi.

Prerequisites

Create an EmotivID

As with other EMOTIV services, you are required to have an EmotivID account. You can create an ID on www.emotiv.com.

Create a Cortex App

Create the application ID and generate the corresponding client ID and client secret for your application in order to grant access to Cortex API.

Step 1: Login to www.emotiv.com.

Step 2: Go to My Account Dashboard (https://www.emotiv.com/my-account/).

Step 3: Select Cortex Apps.

Step 4: If you haven't accepted Developer EULA, you will be asked to accept it. Please read the Developers EULA carefully and click Accept only if you agree to all the terms and conditions. You cannot develop an application that works with Cortex if you do not agree to all of the terms.

Step 5: Click Register New

Step 6: Enter the App name of your new application - an application ID will be generated automatically in the form of com.{your-username}.{application-name}. Note that the app ID string must contain only alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9), hyphens (-), and periods (.).

Step 7: Enable EEG for Professional devices.

Note: Please DO NOT enable this option if:

• Your app only works with Consumer devices (MN8, MW20, Insight)

• Your app works with Professional devices (EPOC, FLEX) but doesn't need Premium API access (e.g., raw EEG or high-resolution performance metrics)

Only enable this option if your app requires EEG data from Emotiv's Professional devices (EPOC, FLEX). Enabling this option doesn't provide your app the Premium API access right away, you need to contact the EMOTIV Customer Support to ensure the access granted. Note that this is a paid feature.

Step 8: Click Register. After registering, a client secret will be presented to you. Copy and store it securely—you’ll need it for authentication during development. If you lost it, you will have to generate a new application ID later.

The Cortex Examples

To help you getting started with your application, EMOTIV provides basic examples in various programming languages. There are open source and hosted by Github at https://github.com/Emotiv/cortex-v2-example

If you have difficulty with the Cortex API, you can also open an issue on this Github repository.

Next Step

If you are upgrading your application from Cortex 1.x to Cortex 2.x, then please be aware that the Cortex API has significantly changed. Please read the release notes for details.

If you are new to the Cortex API, then please start with Connecting to the Cortex API.