Hidra: A Hierarchical Instrument for Distributed Real-Time Analysis of Biological Signals

This work presents a locally distributed common bus multiple-processor system intended to support a hierarchical signal processing scheme for biological signal analysis. Each peripheral unit-the so called preprocessor (PP)-executes real-time signal processsing algorithms over data multiplexed in an input bus. The result of this analysis is transferred to a host computer that integrates the received information from the PP's, saves it in disk when necessary, performs higher level data analysis, and interfaces to the user. The processing of electroencelographic (EEG) data will be used as a case study, due to the multidimensional aspects involved.