.TH WAV2MIT 1 "12 February 2003" "WFDB 10.3.2" "WFDB Applications Guide"
.SH NAME
wav2mit, mit2wav \- convert between .wav and WFDB-compatible formats
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBwav2mit -i\fR \fIfile\fR\fB.wav\fR [ \fIoptions\fR ... ]
.br
\fBmit2wav -o\fR \fIfile\fR\fB.wav\fR \fB-r\fR \fIrecord\fR [ \fIoptions\fR ... ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
These programs convert files in the widely-used \fB.wav\fR audio file
format into WFDB format files (as used in PhysioBank) and vice versa.
Most \fB.wav\fR files are already written in a WFDB-compatible format,
although the reverse is not true. (An embedded header is required
by \fB.wav\fR format, and is allowed but is not usually present in WFDB-format
signal files.)
.PP
\fBwav2mit\fR creates a WFDB record from \fIfile\fR\fB.wav\fR.
If the input file is written in an MIT-compatible signal file format,
all that is required in this case is to create a suitable
WFDB-format \fB.hea\fR header file that describes the \fB.wav\fR file's format.
Some \fB.wav\fR files are written using variants of the format that are not
readable by the WFDB library; the current version of \fBwav2mit\fR does not
attempt to convert such files, but warns that they are not compatible.
Options for \fBwav2mit\fR include:
.TP
\fB-h\fR
Print a brief usage summary.
.TP
\fB-r\fR \fIrecord\fR
Create the specified \fIrecord\fR (default: use the base name of the input
file as the record name).
.PP
\fBmit2wav\fR reads the specified WFDB-format \fIrecord\fR (header and signal
files) and creates a \fB.wav\fR file containing the same data. Note that
much of the data description contained in the WFDB-format header file cannot
be preserved in the \fB.wav\fR file. Options for \fBmit2wav\fR include:
.TP
\fB-h\fR
Print a brief usage summary.
.TP
\fB-n\fR \fIrecord\fR
Create a header file for the output (\fB.wav\fR) signal file, so that it
can be read by WFDB applications as the specified \fIrecord\fR.
.PP
It may be possible to create analog signals by playing the .wav file through
a sound card, but you should be aware of the following potential pitfalls:
.IP
Your sound card, and the software that comes with it, may not be able to
play \fB.wav\fR files containing three or more signals. If this is a problem,
you will need to extract one or two signals to include in the \fB.wav\fR file
from your original recording (for example, using \fBxform\fR(1)).
.IP
Your sound card and its software may be unable to play \fB.wav\fR files at
other than certain fixed sampling frequencies (typically 11025, 22050, and
44100 Hz). If this is a problem, you will need to resample the input at one of
the frequencies supported by your sound card (for example, using
\fBxform\fR(1)) before converting it to \fB.wav\fR format using this program.
.IP
Your sound card may not be able to reproduce the frequencies present in
the input. This is \fIvery\fR likely if you are trying to recreate physiologic
signals such as ECGs (with most of the useful information in the 0.1 to 30
Hz band) using a consumer sound card (which probably does not reproduce
frequencies below the lower limit of human hearing (around 30 Hz). One
possible solution to this problem is to create a digital signal containing
a higher-frequency carrier signal, amplitude-modulated by the signal of
interest, and to convert this AM signal into a \fB.wav\fR file; on playback,
an analog AM demodulator would then recover the original low-frequency
signal of interest. If you successfully implement this solution, please
send details to the author.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
.PP
It may be necessary to set and export the shell variable \fBWFDB\fR (see
\fBsetwfdb\fR(1)).
.SH AVAILABILITY
These programs are provided in the \fIconvert\fR directory of the WFDB Software
Package. Run \fBmake\fR in that directory to compile and install them if they
have not been installed already.
.SH SEE ALSO
\fBa2m\fR(1), \fBedf2mit\fR, \fBsnip\fR(1), \fBxform\fR(1), \fBwfdb\fR(3),
\fBheader\fR(5)
.SH AUTHOR
George B. Moody (george@mit.edu)
.SH SOURCES
http://www.physionet.org/physiotools/wfdb/convert/wav2mit.c
.br
http://www.physionet.org/physiotools/wfdb/convert/mit2wav.c