Biobabel: A Unified Interface for Reading Diverse Physiology File Formats Including Cardiac, Respiration, and Electrodermal Data

Human biosignals such as breathing, cardiac rhythms, or skin conductance contain a wealth of information about cognition, emotion, and social connection. Measuring these biosignals is now possible using a range of open-source or commercial sensors. However, the software accompanying each of such sensors stores data in all manner of different file formats. This makes it difficult for researchers across the globe to exchange analysis scripts, which are needed for data reproducibility. Biobabel is an open-source software Python package that reads all the major biosignal file formats and allows programmers to access the data in a unified, straightforward manner. It provides a handy set of tools for inspecting data and performing basic manipulations. Biobabel thus hopes to contribute to a unified, practical foundation allowing researchers interested in biosignals to focus on extracting meaningful insights from these data.