DATA ACQUISTION & CONTROL VIA SERIAL I/O

WE WILL ADD SERIAL-PORT DATA ACQUISITION AND CONTROL CAPABILITIES TO MLAB, A POWERFUL MATHEMATICAL MODELING AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS ENVIRONMENT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FOR DOS-BASED PERSONAL COMPUTERS. THE ENHANCEMENTS WILL POTENTIATE A CONVENIENT, INTERACTIVE MIX OF EXTERNAL INSTRUMENT CONTROL, DATA ACQUISITION, REAL-TIME GRAPHICAL DISPLAY, AND DATA ANALYSIS USING A PANOPLY OF MATHEMATICAL TOOLS. MLAB SERVES BIOMEDICAL RESEARCHERS BY ALLOWING COMPLEX CALCULATIONS, INCLUDING CURVE-FITTING TO DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION MODELS, TO BE INVOKED BY SIMPLE, DIRECT COMMANDS. FUNCTIONS, DATA, AND COMPUTATIONAL RESULTSARE DISPLAYABLE ON-SCREEN CURRENTLY AS STATIC GRAPHS. SUCH GRAPHS MAY ALSO BE PRINTED OR INCORPORATED INTO WORD-PROCESSING DOCUMENTS. FOR PHASE I, THE INITIAL WORK INVOLVES SERIAL PORT CONTROL AND FUNDAMENTAL INPUT/OUTPUT MECHANISMS. FURTHERMORE, NEW ALGORITHMS FOR INTEGRATION, DIFFERENTIATION, AND MOVING STATISTICS WILL BE PROGRAMMED APPROPRIATELY FOR INCREMENTALLY PROCESSING DATA AS IT ARRIVES. THE DESIGN OF PHASE II INTERFACE AND FUNCTIONAL FEATURES WILL BE COMPLETED AND INITIAL IMPLEMENTATION OF THESE FEATURES BEGUN. THE FORESEEN USER INTERFACE WILL PROVIDE DYNAMIC GRAPHICAL DISPLAYS OF MULTICHANNEL INFORMATION. THE MAJOR VISUALIZATION METAPHOR IS THE STRIP CHART/OSCILLOGRAPH, WITH SCROLLING AND PLAYBACK CONTROLS. AN ARSENAL OF WAVEFORM PROCESSING TECHNIQUES WILL BE COMPLEMENTED BY PLANNED FUNCTIONALITY FOR LONG TERM ACQUISITION, FLEXIBLE DATA REFORMATTING AND EVENT DRIVE USERSPECIFIED PROCESSING. WE WILL ADD SERIAL-PORT DATA ACQUISITION AND CONTROL CAPABILITIES TO MLAB, A POWERFUL MATHEMATICAL MODELING AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS ENVIRONMENT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FOR DOS-BASED PERSONAL COMPUTERS. THE ENHANCEMENTS WILL POTENTIATE A CONVENIENT, INTERACTIVE MIX OF EXTERNAL INSTRUMENT CONTROL, DATA ACQUISITION, REAL-TIME GRAPHICAL DISPLAY, AND DATA ANALYSIS USING A PANOPLY OF MATHEMATICAL TOOLS. MLAB SERVES BIOMEDICAL RESEARCHERS BY ALLOWING COMPLEX CALCULATIONS, INCLUDING CURVE-FITTING TO DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION MODELS, TO BE INVOKED BY SIMPLE, DIRECT COMMANDS. FUNCTIONS, DATA, AND COMPUTATIONAL RESULTSARE DISPLAYABLE ON-SCREEN CURRENTLY AS STATIC GRAPHS. SUCH GRAPHS MAY ALSO BE PRINTED OR INCORPORATED INTO WORD-PROCESSING DOCUMENTS. FOR PHASE I, THE INITIAL WORK INVOLVES SERIAL PORT CONTROL AND FUNDAMENTAL INPUT/OUTPUT MECHANISMS. FURTHERMORE, NEW ALGORITHMS FOR INTEGRATION, DIFFERENTIATION, AND MOVING STATISTICS WILL BE PROGRAMMED APPROPRIATELY FOR INCREMENTALLY PROCESSING DATA AS IT ARRIVES. THE DESIGN OF PHASE II INTERFACE AND FUNCTIONAL FEATURES WILL BE COMPLETED AND INITIAL IMPLEMENTATION OF THESE FEATURES BEGUN. THE FORESEEN USER INTERFACE WILL PROVIDE DYNAMIC GRAPHICAL DISPLAYS OF MULTICHANNEL INFORMATION. THE MAJOR VISUALIZATION METAPHOR IS THE STRIP CHART/OSCILLOGRAPH, WITH SCROLLING AND PLAYBACK CONTROLS. AN ARSENAL OF WAVEFORM PROCESSING TECHNIQUES WILL BE COMPLEMENTED BY PLANNED FUNCTIONALITY FOR LONG TERM ACQUISITION, FLEXIBLE DATA REFORMATTING AND EVENT DRIVE USERSPECIFIED PROCESSING.