Ideas

This week was mostly about turning Build The Simulation into a maintainable reference site: a directory of companies/labs (BCI Atlas), a growing catalog of neural interface designs (Devices), and a simulation sandbox that’s actually usable by other people.

Progress

Devices catalog (designs)

• Expanded the Devices catalog with template-consistent entries (stable IDs, spec-card grid layout, and references).
• Started treating some entries as design families when appropriate (e.g., spiral/helical nerve cuff electrodes), and adding separate entries for notable implementations.

BCI Atlas

• Improved map reliability by making sure there is always a working fallback (SVG world map with pins) so the page never renders blank.
• Moved from a single test pin to auto-generated pins for all entries with lat/lon, and fixed pin alignment by accounting for image scaling/letterboxing.

Site foundations

• Continued moving toward a “magazine + textbook + simulation” structure backed by Astro content collections so writing and updating stays frictionless.

Direction: a catalog you can actually browse

The goal isn’t just to accumulate pages — it’s to make a searchable browser where someone can quickly find:

• device classes (intracortical vs ECoG vs PNI vs endovascular)
• intended use (recording vs stimulation)
• clinical status (human vs research)
• modality-specific properties (wireless, fully implanted, channel count ranges, etc.)

What “search + tags” should look like

On the Devices index page, I should support:

• a simple text search (title + short description + tags)
• clickable tags to refine results (multi-select)
• obvious “active filters” pills + one-click clear
• URL-driven state (optional but ideal): share a filtered view like /devices?tag=intracortical&tag=wireless

Implementation plan (practical, static-site friendly):

• Use frontmatter fields + tags as the canonical metadata.
• Render all device cards server-side, but add a tiny client-side script to filter/hide cards instantly.
• Keep it robust on Cloudflare Pages (no external dependencies required).

I can do the same for the BCI Atlas index (companies/labs): tags like “company”, “lab”, “intracortical”, “ECoG”, “endovascular”, “China”, etc., plus region/location filters later.

Simulation documentation: where it should live

Right now the simulation exists, but discovery + onboarding are the weak points. The docs should live in a place that is:

• easy to find from the nav
• one click away from the simulation UI
• written for people who don’t already know what the controls mean

Proposed structure

• Keep the simulator at /sim (short, memorable).
• Add a “How to use this simulation” guide at /simulations/nerve-cross-section/guide/.
• Make /simulations/nerve-cross-section/ a small landing page that links to:
  • Run the simulation → /sim
  • Guide / documentation → /simulations/nerve-cross-section/guide/

What the guide should include (minimum viable)

• 30-second orientation: what the sim is and isn’t (proxy model)
• core interactions: pan/zoom, add/move electrodes, read the plots
• “what to try” recipes (e.g., change falloff, move electrodes, watch thresholded recruitment)
• a short glossary (axon sites, falloff, threshold, recruitment)
• a link back to the Devices catalog so the sim feels connected to the catalog

Plan for next week

• Implement the first version of search + tag filtering on /devices.
• Add a simulation guide page and link to it prominently from both /simulations/nerve-cross-section/ and /sim.
• Keep adding Devices entries, but start tightening references toward PubMed/DOI whenever possible.