title: Portable data acquisition system for EKG measurements in marine environments.
abstract: In the present paper, an electronic prototype designed to acquire electrocardiographic signals from marine mammals has been developed. The system consists of a portable device that allows the on-line acquisition of EKG signals through a parallel port interface that is connected to a laptop computer. The EKG waveform, the voltage level, the bandwidth and the most relevant information from this type of signals is stored and analysed under real-time conditions by means of specifically implemented software. The whole system has been successfully tested to obtain the EKG from captive dolphins. The characteristics of the equipment presented here, with its low cost, size and energy requirements accomplish a portable system suitable for the acquisition of this type of signals in conductive media such as the seawater.
authors.affiliation: Department of Fundamental and Experimental Physics, University of La Laguna, 38203, La Laguna, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ayala
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rosa
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Herrera
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Díaz-González
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004289:Dolphins; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D012984:Software