In this tutorial, you will learn how to activate and use OpenSignals’ Manual Measurements add-on to manually register the sensor samples displayed on the displays of third-party sensors along with your BITalino and biosignalsplux acquisitions.
The add-on is compatible with all PLUX sensors and allows you to register sensor data from the following third-party sensor types:
- Blood Oxygen Saturation (SpO2) data using Pulse Oximeter
- Blood Pressure data using a Blood Pressure Monitor
- Glucose Level data using a Glucometer
Getting Started
For this setup, you will need the following products:
- OpenSignals (r)evolution (desktop) (Version Public Build 2022-05-16 or newer) (1)
- 1x BITalino or biosignalsplux hub
- 1x (or more) BITalino sensor(s) or biosignalsplux sensor(s) of your choice
- 1x Pulse Oximeter, Blood Pressure Monitor and/or Glucometer
(1) See how you can identify your OpenSignals version in this article
Step 1: How to activate the Add-On
Activate the free Manual Measurements add-on for use in the real-time and visualisation modes using the instructions below. Note that this step is only required when using the add-on for the first time.
- Open OpenSignals’ help menu
- Under the REAL TIME PLUGINS list, check the checkbox next to MANUAL MEASUREMENTS to activate the add-on for the real-time acquisition mode
- Under the POST-PROCESSING PLUGINS list, check the checkbox next to MANUAL MEASUREMENTS to activate the add-on for the visualisation mode
Step 2: How to access the Add-On
The following instructions are applicable for both the real-time acquisition mode as for the visualisation mode.
1. Open the add-ons panel using the add-on icon:
OpenSignals add-ons icon
2. Select the MANUAL MEASUREMENT INPUT add-on from the tabs of available add-ons at the top of the add-on panel.
The add-on should now be visible as shown in the screenshot below.
Note for macOS users using macOS (10.15) Catalina and earlier In order to use this add-on's functionality you need to add OpenSignals to the accessibility whitelist. Find out how to to this here: https://mizage.com/help/accessibility.html
Step 3: How to register sensor samples during the acquisition
Setup your device for acquisition and start a real-time acquisition by clicking on the red record button.
Access the add-on as shown in Step 2 of this guide.
Register a sensor sample to your BITalino and biosignalsplux acquisition using the following instructions:
- Select the type of sensor sample you want to register using the Measurement Device dropdown list (example here: Oximeter)
- Enter the sensor sample (without its unit) that is displayed on your device’s onboard display (here: 98)
- Click on Register to add the sensor sample to your acquisition (note that the sensor sample is registered at the time the Register button is clicked)
The registered samples are displayed with a vertical line in your sensor data and listed in the add-on panel as follows:
- Blood Oxygen Saturation (SpO2) data:
- Line Color: blue
- Label: OX (with X being the number of the registered SpO2 sample)
- Blood Pressure data:
- Line Color: red
- Label: BPY (with Y being the number of the registered Blood Pressure sample)
- Glucose Level data:
- Line Color: green
- Label: GZ (with Z being the number of the registered Glucose sample)
Afterwards, you can repeat the process to add all the sensor samples as necessary as shown in the screenshot below. You can also remove values at any time by clicking on the red remove button next to each registered sensor sample.
Step 4: How to load sensor samples after the acquisition
Enter the visualisation mode using the replay icon in the main interface.
Access the add-on as shown in Step 2: How to access the add-on of this guide.
In the visualisation mode, the add-on contains an additional field displaying the path of the annotation file that contains the registered sensor samples.
If the field is empty, you can manually select your annotation file by clicking on the left document icon. Search and select the annotation file using the file browser (see the last section of this tutorial to learn how to identify the correct file).
Click on the DRAW MEASUREMENT button to load the sensor samples from the annotation file.
The registered samples are displayed with a vertical line in your sensor data and listed in the add-on panel as follows:
- Blood Oxygen Saturation (SpO2) data:
- Line Color: blue
- Label: OX (with X being the number of the registered SpO2 sample)
- Blood Pressure data:
- Line Color: red
- Label: BPY (with Y being the number of the registered Blood Pressure sample)
- Glucose Level data:
- Line Color: green
- Label: GZ (with Z being the number of the registered Glucose sample)
Step 5: How to add sensor samples after the acquisition
The add-on allows you to manually add sensor samples even after the acquisition in the visualization mode.
If you want to register missing sensor samples to an existing annotation file, follow the instructions of Step 4 before proceeding with the next steps. If no existing annotation file is available, any new sensor samples will be stored in a new annotation file.
- Select the type of sensor data you want to input from the Measurement Device dropdown list (example here: Oximeter)
- Enter the sensor value (without its unit) that is displayed on your device’s onboard display (here: 98)
- Click on the signal at the time where you want to add your sensor sample
The registered samples are displayed with a vertical line in your sensor data and listed in the add-on panel.
Important Note Click on the SAVE MEASUREMENTS FILE to store the newly added sensor samples to your new or existing measurements annotation file.
Notes on File Management
- The manually registered sensor samples using this add-on are stored on separate files as the standard OpenSignals acquisitions containing BITalino and/or biosignalsplux sensor data.
- The measurements are stored in .TXT files
- The .TXT files share the same name as the standard OpenSignals acquisition file name and are extended with with “_MeasurementsAnnotation” suffix
The information in the annotation files are defined as follows:
- Sensor sample index
- Sensor sample label (BP = Blood Pressure, O2 = SpO2, G = Glucose) & sample number
- Time of registered sensor sample in seconds
- Values of registered sensor sample
