NI Biomedical Start-up Kit

[Steve.J]

The Biomedical Startup Kit is an add-on palette to LabVIEW designed for those interested in the fields of life science and biomedical engineering. It offers an easy-to-use API for programming some of the more common tasks in LabVIEW, as well as functions commonly used in biomedical science laboratories.

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/6626

This toolkit should help with many of the common questions that come up in this forum.

[Coq_Rouge]

Hi S.E.Johnson I have installed the Biomedical Startup Kit. But I am somewhat puzzled over the contents. Besides the pretty cool ECG simulator is it any other functionally installed with this toolkit? I can only find existing functions in the palettes. And some non existing functions because I have not all the toolkits referred to in the readme.rtf. I can not find any example related to this kit. Please enlighten me.

[Coq_Rouge]

Strange still no replay.........

[Steve.J]

See update (2.0) and more information about the toolkit here:  http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/9037

This kit contains the following applications:

• File Format Converter
• Biosignal Logger
• Online Biosignal Noise Reduction Data Logger
• ECG Feature Extractor
• Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Analyzer
• Analog ECG Generator
• Noninvasive Blood Pressure (NIBP) Analyzer

[ZJ.Gu]

Hi,

Biomedical Startup Kit 1.0 in http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/6626 will add a palette in LabVIEW. It includes some general signal processing functions and specialized functions for ECG simulation.

Biomedical Startup Kit 2.0 in http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/9037 will install several applications to your computer. It only requires LabVIEW Runtime Engine 8.6 or 8.6.1 and DAQ Software if you want to use the data acquisition functionality.

 Any questions about these tools, feel free to post here.

Thanks!

[Coq_Rouge]

Hi S.E.Johnson and Zhijun Gu

Thank you for your Answers. I must say I still somewhat puzzled about where NI take aim with the Biomedical Start-up Kit. In Kit 1 the only code content was the ECG simulator. The rest was only pointing to existing toolkit and some non installed toolkit functions. But OK this was clearly mentioned in the readme.rtf.

In startup kit version 2. I find some applications. But they are all provided as EXE files. Sorry to say it but for me teaching at university level, I can not use anything because the source code is missing. If the students are going to learn anything they have to know the, or at least get some knowledge about the underlying  concepts. It would also be useful in student project to have the source code behind as code base.

I am fully aware about the fact that Biomedical Startup Kits are made as a teaser for more advanced Labview toolkits. And I also accept it by all means. But as it is now it is not very teasing, but quite the opposite. I think the correct thing is to distribute both source code and EXE files. If the needed toolkits are in house. Biomedical developers could use the code in the same way as other labview examples. And if not, well then they could testdrive using the exe files. I guess NI are not willing to share all the code in the Biomedical Startup Kit. But then the correct thing is password protection.  

[Steve.J]

Hi there,

Thanks for the feedback about the toolkit.  The toolkit could be described as "exploratory" at this point.  It was not designed specifically as a teaser for the advanced toolkits (that would be giving us too much credit at this point!).  We are aware that a large community of our users are doing biomedical research and teaching using LabVIEW and we have recognized that sometimes the terminology and naming of our functions, as well as just the raw breadth and depth of the functions provided with LabVIEW sometimes causes too steep a learning curve.  The toolkit was designed to improve the awareness of LabVIEW's applicability (and strength) in dealing with biosignals, and at the same time, help get someone new going very quickly by providing ready-to-run mini applications to show what can be done.

So...that said:  in addition to the suggestion about making the source code available (which we will certainly discuss) where would you like this toolkit go?

Also - we hope to set up a better tool soon for the biomedical community for sharing of code, examples, ideas, and feedback.  Stay posted, and thanks again for your feedback.

Steve

[Coq_Rouge]

Hi

Thank you again for the answer. Well let me first say I have nothing against teasers. My definition of a teaser is a example with source code and some background material. Like the "LabVIEW for ECG Signal Processing" article (even if the source code is not fully provided). A teaser main task is to produce some awareness about a toolkit or software applicability within a special field.  

You also asked where I would  like this toolkit go. My answer to that is that is not a toolkit yet, but more a demonstrater. But you have taken a big step in the right direction. And to be honest some of applications are pretty cool. I know it take time to create such thing. So I will say you are on the correct track. And with some time to work on documentation etc. This could be a nice and useful toolkit. And I hope it will stay free. As I understand the applications in the toolkit version two, make use of several Labview toolkit. Or at least the NI Advanced Signal Processing Toolkit, and perhaps the LabVIEW Adaptive Filter Toolkit. I do not think it would be a good idea to make a medical "light version" with some functions from both these toolkits. I think the best thing is to sell full toolkits and provide examples within special fields.

And I also think it is a good idea to make a biomedical community for sharing of code, examples, ideas, and feedback. The biomedical field deserve a better existence than it has today. Today it lives a "Cinderella" like way of life. The Life Science board is hidden deep down in the "Special Interest Boards" cellar. It actually took me several years to discover it. Since it hidden so well, it is pretty god chance that people looking for this kind of information and help not will find it at all. And I will also gladly contribute. I have made a pretty cool skin conductance meter with the help of a soundcard and some simple electronics. The accuracy and sensitivity is better than almost all expensive commercial applications. It uses  an AC voltage and the three electrode setup. And it is of course reeltime with curve. Does this sound interesting

[Steve.J]

Thanks - I think we are on the same page regarding the purpose and goals for the start-up kit.

I'm glad to hear that you would help support a user group for the biomedical community, because I just finished creating one!  The new site is much less difficult to find and navigate to, having equal status with many other regional or applications oriented user groups, and it has the ability to host discussion threads, maintain a community owned library or articles and files, and supports such things as polls.  We are just getting it started and have a few kinks to work out (like making sure that content makes it into the proper areas), but we'll get there.

Please visit and join the new group at:  http://decibel.ni.com/content/groups/biomedical-user-group

Steve