A package for the computational analysis of complex biophysical signals

Abstract

Electromyograms are biomedical signals which are detected through electrodes. These signals represent measurements of the electric potentials associated to muscles contractions, and they are physically important in view that they provide information on the health of individuals. The computational modeling of electromyograms has been mainly carried out through general-purpose commercial software, which is typically provided with the purchase of computer equipment. In view of the well-known limitations inherent in the commercial software, a lot of research and efforts are devoted continuously to upgrade existing processing methods. However, as expected, these innovations take a considerable amount of time in order to be implemented in commercial software. In order to alleviate this situation, the package has been developed to provide a free and fully open-source package for both applied and theoretical researchers, which includes some fundamental tools to computationally process electromyograms. The purpose of the present paper is to provide an overview of the most important features of this package, and to supply codes and examples to illustrate its use.