NAME

egd_get_data - peek buffered data

SYNOPSIS

#include <eegdev.h>

ssize_t egd_get_available(struct eegdev* dev);
ssize_t egd_get_data(struct eegdev* dev, size_t ns, ...);

DESCRIPTION

egd_get_available() returns the number of samples that have been buffered by the device referenced by dev and that have not been read yet.

egd_get_data() peeks the ns next samples from the buffered data acquired by the device referenced by dev and fills the arrays provided in the variable list of arguments with the obtained data. If all requested samples have been already acquired, the function returns immediately. Otherwise, the call blocks until the requested data is available, the acquisition stops or a problem occurs. In the last two cases, the data read may be less than requested.

The arrays provided in the variable list of argument are filled following the formats specified by previous call to egd_acq_setup(3). In particular, the number of arrays supplied in the variable list of argument and their size should be consistent with the number of arrays and strides specified by the call to egd_acq_setup(3).

RETURN VALUE

egd_get_available() returns the number of unread samples in case of succes. Otherwise, -1 is returned and errno is set accordingly.

In case of success, egd_get_data() returns the number of read samples (which can be less than the requested number). Otherwise, -1 is returned and errno is set accordingly.

ERRORS

egd_get_available() and egd_get_data() will fail if:

EINVAL: dev is NULL.
ENOMEM: The internal ringbuffer of the device referenced by dev is full.
EAGAIN: The underlying hardware referenced by dev has encountered a loss of connection, maybe due some cable disconnected or a power switch set to off.
EIO: The underlying hardware referenced by dev has encountered a loss of synchronization for an unknown reason.

NOTES

Please be aware that the user has no obligation to make all the calls to egd_get_data() and egd_get_available() during the acquisition. He can also peform some of them after the acquisition which will correspond to get the remaining buffered data.

For example, it might happened that a user want to wait for an certain external event to occur before stopping the acquisition. In this situation, the usual workflow would be to start the acquisition, get regurlarly some data while scanning the event to occur. When this happens, the acquisition is immediately stopped. However at the moment of stopping the acquisition, there might still be some buffered data which could be important. Calling egd_get_available() after egd_stop(3) would then return the size of the remaining data that could be obtained with egd_get_data().

EXAMPLE

#define NEEG	8
#define NTRI	1
#define NS	4
int ns_tot;
ssize_t ns_read;
float eegarr[NEEG*NS];
int32_t triarr[NTRI*NS];
struct grpconf grp[2];
unsigned int strides[2];
/* Assume that a device has been successfully opened, i.e. there
is a valid 'dev' variable of type struct eegdev* */
strides[0] = NEEG*sizeof(float);
strides[1] = NTRI*sizeof(int32_t);
grp[0].sensortype = egd_sensor_type("eeg");
grp[0].index = 0;
grp[0].iarray = 0;
grp[0].arr_offset = 0;
grp[0].nch = NEEG;
grp[0].datatype = EGD_FLOAT;
grp[1].sensortype = egd_sensor_type("trigger");
grp[1].index = 0;
grp[1].iarray = 1;
grp[1].arr_offset = 0;
grp[1].nch = NTRI;
grp[1].datatype = EGD_INT32;
/* Setup how to get the data */
egd_acq_setup(dev, 2, strides, 2, grp);
/* Start the acquisition. 
From now, all incoming samples will be buffered */
egd_start(dev);
ns_tot = 0;
while (ns_tot < 1000) {
	/* Get the data */
	ns_read = egd_get_data(dev, NS, eegarr, triarr);
	if (ns_read < 0) {
		/* Handle failure */
	}
	ns_tot += ns_read;
	/* do something with the new data */
}
/* Stop the acquisition, i.e. no new data is buffered */
egd_stop(dev);