Chapter 1. Introduction

When analyzing biological signals, access to the raw data is mandatory. Because of different demands, both, the industry and the research community created a high number of different data formats for signal storage and signal distribution. To analyze data stored in a new data format, either a conversion program has to be written or the access functionality for the new data format has to be added to the analyzing program(s).

One way to solve this problem is the use of a standard file format, which is powerful enough to handle all needs for storing and distributing signals. For physiological signals, the 'File Exchange Format for Vital Signs' (FEF) tries to accomplish this task. If this format (or a similar one) is accepted by the research community and if the industry provides the possibility to export the signal data in this format, the data access will be facilitated.

Our approach, moreover, is different. We assume that there will be always different data formats (some 'standard' formats and a lot of proprietary formats). Therefore libRASCH, a programming library, was developed, which hides the differences of the data formats behind a common application programming interface (API).

Programs using libRASCH, no longer need to be adapted to each new data format. The implementation of a new data format needs only to be done once for libRASCH. Than all libRASCH based programs can handle the new format.

Additionally, libRASCH provides the infrastructure to perform processing algorithms in a standardized way and provide support to display the signal data on the computer screen.