Sending a trigger to a perturbation device attached with Vicon Motion Capture System using VICON DATASTREAM SDK with MATLAB

[Anisha]

Hello,

I am a master's student working as an intern in a biomechanics lab. I am doing a project that involves sending a trigger signal to a perturbation device attached with the VICON system.

I am accessing the real-time motion capture data using the Vicon Datastream SDK (1.12). I am using the MATLAB programming language. Specifically, I can access marker and force plate data of each frame and process it.

After capturing and processing the real time data, I want to send a trigger signal to a special perturbation device from my MATLAB code using the Vicon Datastream SDK. The device is attached and the trigger signal can be sent through Nexus software. Now I want to send the trigger signal directly from the Matlab program.

I saw the function list available in the documentation provided with the SDK, but could not figure out which function to use.

Is it possible to use VICON Datastream SDK for the above purpose using Matlab? If not, could you please tell me what would be a way to achieve the above.

Thank you very much.

[Wagner De Godoy]

I think Vicon support can help with important technical information about the SDK module:
support@vicon.com

I hope this information helps with your project. Best Regards,
Wagner de Godoy
Brazil

[Manvendra Singh]

It depends on what kind of trigger your perturbation devices accepts. There are ways to send compatible triggers from Matlab. Serial port is one of the option. Other option is to use Matlab compatible Data Acquisition System.

[Edmund Cramp]

It would help if you work to create a single event that can be detected. For example coating a golf-ball with the retro-reflective marker tape and then recording it dropped onto the force plate gives you the marker Z coordinates displaying the instant it hits the force plate and the force plate detecting it landing on the plate. So you have a "single event" recorded in two data streams. If you place a small loud-speaker on the force-plate and connect it to an EMG pre-amplifier or some other detection system then you have a single event with three signals - if the EMG stream is delayed a little so you can see everything when the golf-ball hits the force plate Extending this sort of testing in your environment will help you determine how everything is working.