Interactive control of physiological experiments

Abstract

Physiological and biological experiments often require the imposition of repeated influences on an organ or organic system. Then the experimental protocol requires many repetitive functions with adjustable interval times and magnitudes, which are prepared or dictated by experimental results. To control such an experimental set-up interactively with a small computer we chose a more or less general approach. A special language syntax has been developed for: (i) experiment definition; (ii) experiment composition in advance; (iii) real-time control during the actual experiment; and (iv) registration of the actual protocol parameters. The interactive control was realized using the special language and an interpreter as one of the parallel processes for the experimental control.