Kymograph: a muscle physiology toolkit
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 29, 2026

In Vivo Canine Muscle Function Assay
Published on: April 5, 2011
John S Walker1, Mark R Whitis, Richard A Murphy
1Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA. jsw9c@uic.edu
Abstract:
Kymograph is a freely available, Linux-based data acquisition and control system that is designed as a device driver and a series of scriptable tools. It allows the creation of scripts for performing a variety of measurements related to muscle physiology. It can control hardware (2 analog channels) and capture data (up to 16 channels) at rates of up to 1 kHz. It also has the ability to generate stimulus control pulses with a resolution of 10 micros. The tools can be used with any of the common scripting languages to generate complete control and capture routines for performing measurements such as length-tension curves or force-velocity relationships. Source code is provided to allow easy extension of the software.
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