WaveTrak™ is a scriptable waveform database that stores, organizes and processes digitized waveforms. WaveTrak was written using HyperCard as a user-friendly front end, supported by over 70 externals written in C and assembler that perform digital filtering, power spectrum computations, waveform math, display, import/export and much more. Digitized waveforms can either be acquired/generated by another system and imported into the WaveTrak database, or digitized directly on the Mac with the optional WaveTrak A/D library (available with the WaveTrak AD version, and not included in the shareware package), which adds real-time data acquisition and signal generation capabilities, by providing drivers for the MacADIOS II A/D board from GW Instruments, Somerville, MA.
WaveTrak encourages you to open and modify its functionality by scripting using WaveTrak's extension to the HyperTalk language. Our goal is to bring data acquisition and signal processing on the Mac within reach of every experimenter, without the need to re-learn a whole new environment. Customizing your system is as easy as scripting in HyperTalk or modifying one of the many example buttons. Don't be fooled by the fact that WaveTrak looks like a HyperCard stack. HyperCard was simply chosen as a user friendly interface. The real-time and computation-intensive operations are performed by a collection of highly optimized externals written in C and assembler. The WaveTrakDocs.hqx archive contains a complete user's manual explaining every aspect of the system, whether for beginner or expert.
The latest version is 1.43, released in November, 1995. See the revision history at the end for details.
If you like what you see and decide to use it, we would as that you register your copy by sending in the shareware fee (US $59, $79 with printed manual. The address is provided on the Home Card in the WaveTrak stack). This will allow us to inform you of upgrades and provide limited technical support via e-mail. Also, this will allow us to continue to improve WaveTrak and add features you, the user, request (WaveTrak has been under development for over 5 years and has undergone numerous enhancements and bug fixes). Don't be misled by the price; this is a powerful waveform processing and acquisition system which competes directly with high-priced commercial applications, and was featured in the March, 1994 issue of Scientific Computing and Automation. You will need HyperCard 2.1 or later, a Mac with an FPU and hard disk. Currently, WaveTrak runs on 680x0 Macs, but is not compatible with Power PC machines due to lack of floating point emulation (you can run it with SoftFPU but this slows down DSP and wave math functions considerably). If there is enough interest, WaveTrak will be rewritten and optimized for Power PC in the future.
Consult the detailed user's manual (WaveTrakDocs.hqx) or contact the author for more details at: stys@civich.ottawa.on.ca.
And most important, we want to hear your comments!
