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The Shimmer LabVIEW Library

The Shimmer LabVIEW Instrument Driver Library is a library of LabVIEW VIs designed to assist users of the Shimmer 2 and Shimmer 2r in the development of Shimmer based applications in LabVIEW. The Shimmer LabVIEW Library is not intended to be the answer to all host side application requirements, but instead as a set of building blocks for developers.

The Shimmer LabVIEW Library offers Shimmer users all the benefits associated with the LabVIEW development environment including:

  • Multiplatform (Windows, Mac OS, Linux, RTOS)
  • Powerful, flexible, and scalable design (open, connects to external libraries and third-party tools)
  • Support for a wide variety of data acquisition and embedded control devices
  • Signal processing and analysis tools, and the ability to solve and execute complex algorithms in real time
  • Help to develop better, faster algorithms (algorithm engineering)
  • A bridge to industry – same tools used in academia and industry
  • One tool for design, prototyping and deployment
  • The ability to create distributable EXEs and DLLs
  • Shorter time to prototype, time to discovery, time to deployment, and potentially time to market

Description

The Library allows developers to be guided through the structure and tools to familiarize and develop applications with the Shimmer platform through various levels of LabVIEW VIs.

  • Instrument Driver VIs: Low level Instrument Drivers for a range of different Shimmer operations such as configuring, triggering, and acquiring data
  • Integrated Shimmer VIs: VIs that integrate all of the functionality of the lower level Instrument Driver VIs, providing ready made solutions suitable for most applications, greatly reducing development time
  • Example Application VIs: LabVIEW application VIs that are designed to demonstrate  the use of the Integrated VIs in application development as well as serving as a basis for the development of user designed applications

Features

The Shimmer LabVIEW Library incorporates some extremely helpful features which Shimmer users can explore and leverage including:

  • Streaming of data signals in both raw and calibrated formats
  • The ability to capture, display, and write data signals from up to four Shimmer devices simultaneously
  • The provision of a continuous sequential timestamp in millisecond format
  • Feedback on the percentage of data packets successfully received from the Shimmer, useful when using multiple Shimmers at very high data rates.
  • Supports the full range of Shimmer sensing modules
  • Battery monitoring/low battery notification
  • Support for store ECG and EMG calibration values
  • The ability to store and retrieve accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer calibration parameters to memory on the Shimmer
    • The stored parameters are automatically used to calibrate the signals in LabVIEW.
    • If calibration parameters are not stored on the Shimmer the LabVIEW VIs will use the default calibration parameters form the sensor datasheet.

The Shimmer LabVIEW library also includes extensive documentation in the form of a comprehensive User Manual and labeling of block diagrams.

Demonstration Videos

Demo 1 – Download and Install the Shimmer LabVIEW Library

Demo 2 – Exploring the Shimmer LabVIEW Library

Demo 3 – Example Shimmer LabVIEW Applications

Requirements

In order to use the Shimmer LabVIEW Instrument Driver Library you will need the following:

  1. National Instruments LabVIEW Version 9.0 or later installed on your PC.
  2. National Instruments VISA installed as part of your LabVIEW installation. You can download the latest version of VISA here.
  3. The appropriate Shimmer LabVIEW X.X  Instrument Driver Library RevX.X package.
    1. The library package is available for download via the links at the bottom of this webpage and includes the following:
      1. The Shimmer LabVIEW Instrument Driver Library project, library and source files.
      2. BoilerPlate firmware containing firmware images for both the Shimmer 2 (BoilerPlate_shimmer2.ihex) and Shimmer 2r (BoilerPlate_shimmer2r.ihex).
      3. Shimmer LabVIEW Instrument Driver Library User Manual.pdf.
      4. Readme.txt

Download

Note: The Shimmer LabVIEW Instrument Driver Library has been developed independently of the previously released Shimmer LabVIEW DSC module and is provided as an alternative to the DSC module for the development of Shimmer LabVIEW applications.