libRASCH - a Programming Framework for Transparent Access to Physiological Signals

For the analysis of physiological signals, such as ECG's, continuous blood pressure recordings etc., access to the raw signal data as well as to processed data is mandatory. Up to now, there is no computer program which allows access to raw and processed data independently from the file formats used. Thus, programs have to be adapted to each new file format. The aim of the programming library ‘libRASCH’, is to provide an interface which allows the access to physiological signals in a consistent way. libRASCH is written in C and runs under Linux and Windows. The source code of libRASCH is published under the GNU LGPL. A plugin mechanism for extension of the library was implemented. Support for some widely used data formats (e.g. European Data Format) is already available. To support a new file-format, only the corresponding plugin has to be written. Moreover all programs using this library, can handle the new format without further adjustments. For other programming languages than C (e.g. Perl, Python), interfaces are available. On the libRASCH website (http://www.librasch.org), the source code of libRASCH and further information's are available.