The latest release in our line of Datapac software and hardware systems for data acquisition, processing, analysis, and experimental control, Datapac 2K2 is now more powerful, versatile, and easier to use than ever before. Like its predecessors, Datapac 2K2 is an interactive, menu-driven application that requires no programming skills or other special training to operate. Yet at the same time it provides the power and flexibility needed to satisfy demanding users across a broad spectrum of applications from membrane biophysics to the movement sciences. And Datapac 2K2 is packed with new and enhanced features, including...
Improved Acquisition Capabilities:
One of the most significant new additions to Datapac 2K2 is the introduction of the Enhanced Acquisition module. The Enhanced Acquisition module dramatically expands the system's acquisition capabilities by providing an impressive array of new and powerful real time resources. Gone are the days when you were forced to view all of your incoming analog data in one time series window. Now you can simultaneously generate up to eight real time display windows -- and even choose between several different types of displays for each one! There are five display types to choose from - time series, X-Y plot, sliding meter, gauge meter, or digital read-out - and display type can appear in any window. But multiple windows and display types for viewing incoming analog data are only the beginning of the new features introduced in the Enhanced Acquisition module. Another is the ability to simultaneously capture and display video data as well! Additionally, the module brings Datapac 2K2's new virtual channels feature into the real time environment and combines it with real time signal processing! As described more fully in a later paragraph, the virtual channels feature makes it possible to produce duplicates of the signal acquired in an actual incoming channel - or even calibrated force plate data - and to view them as if they were additional, separate channels. Each virtual channel can then be processed independently of each other as well as independently of their original source. That means you can generate both raw and processed versions of the same signal simultaneously, or process the same signal in several different ways, while viewing them all in the same window.
Tell me more about the new Enhanced Acquisition module!
We realize that not everyone needs all the bells and whistles that the Enhanced Acquisition offers. For that reason we have retained the standard Acquisition module. But the standard Acquisition module has been improved in many ways, too. The standard Acquisition module also now offers the ability to view your incoming signals in multiple windows, although they are limited to only the time series display type. Nonetheless you can configure each window independently. For example, you can view a different set of channels in each window, set different sweep durations for each, use the smooth scrolling feature in some windows but not others, as well as a host of other configuration options. Additionally, the module now allows the ability to acquire non-sequential channels. In previous versions users were required to activate a continuous range of channels. For example, if you wanted to acquire channels 1, 3, and 5, you also had to acquire channels 2 and 4. Datapac 2K2 no longer imposes that requirement; it allows you to "ignore" selected channels in your active channel range. But what is especially interesting is what we mean by "ignore". All channels in the active channel range are actually accumulated during acquisition; you just don't have to store them all in your data file. But because they are accumulated they are available for on-line tasks such as display and triggering. In other words, you can view channels in real time even though they are never stored to your data file, and you can even use them to trigger acquisition!
Video Capture and Playback:
The new Video module is an economical yet versatile solution for simultaneous acquisition and synchronized playback of video and analog data. Its primary purpose is to serve as a useful and cost-effective screening and evaluation tool in sports science, ergonomics, and clinical settings, as well as any setting where synchronized collection of video and analog records is required. The Video module offers both video capture and video playback components. The video capture component requires the Enhanced Acquisition module and a commercially available DV minicamcorder. The playback component, however, accepts video files from almost any source (e.g., MPEG (1, 2, 4...), AVI, or QT (QuickTime)). During playback, the video image can be synchronized with up to four analog time series windows, thus allowing you to compare the relationship between video and analog date with great versatility. Playback speed can be varied from 20x normal to 1/20x normal, in addition to frame-by-frame in forward and reverse directions. It is also possible to jump quickly and easily to any location in the video record using the slider bar at the bottom of the video display window. Analog playback remains fully synched through all playback manipulations. Video and analog data can be assembled into reports and printed on your printer. A report can consist of an analog data display along with a sequence of one or more frames, or just a sequence of frames.
Tell me more about the new Video module!
2D Motion Tracking and Analysis:
The new 2D Motion Tracking module offers a low-cost solution for tracking motion in two dimensions. Since it is an extension of the Video module, it can be used with any video file that the Video module accepts. And since the 2D Motion Tracking module is also integrated into the larger Datapac 2K2 environment, kinematic data can be easily compared to simultaneously acquired kinetic and analog data. Both manual and automatic tracking modes are available. The manual mode can be used with or without markers, allowing great flexibility. The automatic tracking mode can track all or some markers in a frame-by-frame fashion, or can track individual markers sequentially through all frames. And since the 2D Motion Tracking module de-interlaces frames on the fly, you get 60 frames/sec resolution out of a standard AVI file (50 frames/sec in APL format).
Sticks may be superimposed on the video record during both manual and automatic tracking. “Virtual points”, defined as the intersection between two sticks extended into infinity, can also be superimposed on the video record during tracking. And once one or more virtual points are defined, new sticks can be created and viewed employing them. Once manual or automatic tracking is complete, the results can be played back in normal, slow motion, or fast motion speeds, as well as frame-by-frame. Playback can include only points (including those automatically or manually defined, as well as virtual points), sticks, and/or the video record itself in any combination. Point trajectories and angle trajectories can be viewed over any desired interval as well.
Tell me more about the new 2D Motion Tracking module!
Wizards:
The new wizards are interactive aids that guide you through the process of setting up acquisition protocols, data displays, event selection, and data analysis activities. Wizards are especially useful for novice users because they take you step by step through the setup process, providing detailed information along the way. That means fewer errors, less confusion, faster learning, and better utilization of Datapac 2K2's true power and versatility. But even experienced users will find wizards helpful because they make many previously laborious tasks quick and easy to accomplish. For example, wizards make it possible to set parameters for many channels all at once. Do you want to set the same gain for an entire group of channels, or to present a group of channels in the same color? Wizards make it easy.
Virtual Channels:
The new virtual channels feature makes it possible to manipulate the contents of a channel of your data file in many different ways at the same time. It does so by creating copies of the original channel and maintaining them in system memory. That's why we call them virtual channels. The data file is not affected in any way, so the virtual channels feature will work with any data file format that Datapac 2K2 supports. Once created, virtual channels can be processed and analyzed just like any other channel, and completely independently of the source channel. For example, you can create two virtual channels from a displacement record, then process them independently to obtain displacement, velocity, and acceleration all at the same time. Up to 100 virtual channels can be created simultaneously, and they can all be created from the same source channel or from different channels in any combination. Virtual channels can even be created from the calibrated force, moment, and center of pressure data computed by the Force Plate module, thus making your force plate data available to a broad range of sophisticated analyses performed by the rest of the Datapac 2K2 system.
Data File Archive and Restore:
Like its predecessors, Datapac 2K2 is compatible with a large number of data file formats. In many of them (including Datapac's own native formats), a data "file" is actually composed of several component files. Additionally, one or more event files become linked to a data file through the process of event selection. The net effect is that a large number of files or file components become interlinked, and they are often spread across different folders in your computer. In the past, that made the task of archiving or moving those files from one place to another a veritable nightmare. The new data file archive and restore features solve the problem. The archive feature makes it simple to copy or move as many data files as desired, along with all of the files linked to them, to another location. It does not matter whether the new location is another drive, another directory, or another computer. All of the necessary links are updated in the process, making the files immediately accessible from the new location. Similarly, the restore feature copies or moves data files, along with any files linked to them, back to the currently designated default data file and event file folders, updating the links in the process. If the files are copied from a read-only drive -- a CD, for example -- the read-only flag is automatically disabled in the process, making them immediately available again to Datapac 2K2.
Expanded Signal Processing:
The Waveform Processing module has been expanded in Datapac 2K2 to include many new processing operations. Butterworth filters have been added to compliment the existing FIR (finite impulse response) filters. And both types of filters offer adjustable cut-off frequencies and roll-off efficiencies (i.e., multiple poles or orders) to let you tailor your filters to your exact needs. Many new math functions have also been added, including square, square root, natural and base 10 logs, sine, cosine, tangent and arctangent functions. These, combined with the new virtual channels feature, has greatly expanded Datapac 2K2's ability to perform complex matrix math on your acquired signals.
Enhanced Event Selection:
A popular method of setting thresholds for event detection is to measure the mean amplitude of a signal during a "representative" baseline, or silent, period and then setting the threshold a selected number of standard deviation units above the calculated mean. That sounds easy, but too often it is not. Baselines are notoriously unstable, which makes it hard to decide what a representative example is. And even seemingly subtle differences in the choice made can often yield dramatically different results. Another problem is that baseline activity is usually interspersed with on-going activity, and thus will differ in location from one channel to another and one file to another. As a result the process of selecting events is often time-consuming and unreliable. RUN Technologies has developed a method to solve these problems that is elegantly simple, reliable, and very automatic. All you do is define any interval that stays below a selected percentage of maximum amplitude for a minimum period of time as baseline and let Datapac 2K2 pick them for you. That eliminates the need to visually identify the baseline interval. And if there is more than one interval that satisfies the criteria, then all of them contribute to the calculation of the baseline's mean and standard deviation. That eliminates the need of selecting the most "representative" interval. The result is a baseline calculation that is more stable, objective, and repeatable. Moreover, once the search criteria are established, it requires no user intervention. That makes it much easier to automate with macros.
Expanded Spreadsheets:
The Scientific Spreadsheet module has always been one of the most popular Datapac modules. With it you can measure many different characteristics, or "attributes" of selected events, combine or compare them with those measured for events selected from other channels, and present the results in tables similar to those found in financial spreadsheet applications. That is where the module gets its name. In previous versions, however, the number of attributes reported in any one table was limited to 20. Moreover, the attributes were required to be listed in columns across the page, not down rows (the rows were reserved for the values obtained for successive events). In Datapac 2K2 those restrictions have been relaxed: up to 500 attributes can be reported in any table, and they can be arranged in columns or rows. The number of values reported for successive events remains unlimited.
More Versatile Power Spectrum Analysis:
Fundamental to the operation of the Power Spectrum Analysis module is the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) method of decomposing a signal into its component frequencies. But the FFT method suffers from an important limitation: it requires a data segment that contains a set number of samples (data points). One way around this limitation, and one of the solutions offered in previous Datapac versions, is to allow the user to select from different segment sizes, each a power of two multiple of the others. But even so, real life is rarely that tidy. The reality is that the desired data segment often does not contain the prescribed number of samples. To solve the problem the Datapac 2K2 Power Spectrum Analysis module now offers a zero padding feature. The zero padding feature works by adding imaginary samples of amplitude 0.0 symmetrically to either end of a data segment when the selected data segment is not the prescribed length.