Combining the VU-AMS, E-Prime and BioPac in laboratory designs

P.F.C. Groot and J. Den Hartog

Department of Instrumentation (ITM), Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

In this presentation a method will be described which allows VU-AMS software to be used to analyse ECG, thorax impedance (ICG) and respiratory signals, which are measured by BioPac acquisition hardware in a laboratory setting. Since most laboratory designs make use of computerized tests during the physiological measurement, a mechanism is proposed for storing coded event markers as integral part of the recording to be able to classify specific parts of the data during the analysis phase. Part of this mechanism is a software procedure which translates BioPac signals and events markers to labelled signals in an AMS compatible file format, so existing VU-AMS analysis software can be used for in-depth analysis of thorax impedance signals to obtain PEP and RSA. Although E-Prime will be used during this presentation as a typical application to control the flow of psychological testing, any comparable stimulus presentation software can be used in a similar way, as long as it is able to output digital signals by using a standard printer port.

Paper presented at Measuring Behavior 2005 , 5^th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research, 30 August - 2 September 2005, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

© 2005 Noldus Information Technology bv