Standardization of EMG Raw Data Formats and Motor Unit Firing Annotations
We are inviting our colleagues in EMG signal processing to participate in an effort to standardize EMG raw data formats and annotations in order to more easily facilitate the sharing of research resources.
Since standards already exist for the storage of raw data acquired from ADCs (analog to digital converters), we do not anticipate a requirement to develop additional standards in this area. However, we will collect information to describe what formats are being utilized by various groups.
For EMG annotations, our initial interest is in annotations derived from motor unit (MU) decomposition algorithms. Our initial effort will be to collect information on existing file formats used by groups in the field. This information should help to describe what information is maintained, and perhaps suggest methods to more easily share.
We welcome contributions of formats by all groups active in this research area that would be interested in contributing to a standard. By establishing a standard, we hope to eventually be able to share other research resources (e.g., decomposition algorithms, etc.) that operate on data and annotation files that adhere to the standard. Efforts similar to this one have been very successful in related fields in advancing the science and making raw data available to research groups who can not easily collect their own data (see for example the collection of ECG tools at www.physionet.org).
Ted Clancy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA (ted@wpi.edu) Kevin McGill, Veteran's Administration; Stanford University, USA (mcgill@roses.stanford.edu)
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