Visualizing physiological signals in real-time

Abstract

This article presents an open-source Python software package, dubbed RTGraph, to visualize, process and record physiological signals (electro-cardiography, electromyography, etc.) in real-time. RTGraph has a multiprocess architecture. This allows RTGraph to take advantage of multiple cores and to be able to handle data rates typically encountered during the acquisition and processing of biomedical signals. It also allows RTGraph to have a clean separation between the communication and visualization code. The paper presents the architecture and some programming details of RTGraph. It also includes three examples where RTGraph was adapted to work with (i) signals from a Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) in the context of a biomechanical experiment; (ii) electromyography signals to estimate muscle fatigue; and (iii) pressure signals from a device used to monitor nutrition disorders in premature infants.