Hidra: A Hierarchical Instrument for Distributed Real-Time Analysis of Biological Signals

This work presents a locally distributed common bus multiple-processor system intended to support a hierarchical signal processing scheme for biological signal analysis. Each peripheral unit??the so called preprocessor (PP)??executes real-time signal processsing algorithms over data multiplexed in an input bus. The result of this analysis is transferred to a host computer that integrates the received information from the PP´s, saves it in disk when necessary, performs higher level data analysis, and interfaces to the user. The processing of electroencelographic (EEG) data will be used as a case study, due to the multidimensional aspects involved.