Data mining/pattern recogniton software in Python?

[Grzegorz Staniak]

Hello,

I've been asked by a colleague for help in a small educational
project, which would involve the recognition of patterns in a live 
feed of data points (readings from a measuring appliance), and then 
a more general search for patterns on archival data. The language 
of preference is Python, since the lab uses software written in
Python already. I can see there are packages like Open CV,
scikit-learn, Orange that could perhaps be of use for the mining
phase -- and even if they are slanted towards image pattern 
recognition, I think I'd be able to find an appropriate package
for the timeseries analyses. But I'm wondering about the "live" 
phase -- what approach would you suggest? I wouldn't want to 
force an open door, perhaps there are already packages/modules that 
could be used to read data in a loop i.e. every 10 seconds, 
maintain a a buffer of 15 readings and ring a bell when the data
in buffer form a specific pattern (a spike, a trough, whatever)?

I'll be grateful for a push in the right direction. Thanks,

GS
-- 
Grzegorz Staniak   <gstaniak _at_ gmail [dot] com>