ChamberScan
Operant Chamber Behavior is an important aspect of animal behavior. Many researchers want to study the activity before or after specific events that typically occur inside an operant chamber such as nose-poke, lever-press, eating, drinking, etc. Behavior paradigms such as fear-conditioning and self-administration widely use operant chamber behavior.
ChamberScan is a premiere behavior analysis system which aims at automating operant chamber behavior analysis accurately, reliably and efficiently. It integrates both top view and side view information, thus provides overall information including activities and life patterns.
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ChamberScan observes single-animal behavior in an operant chamber, from both top view and side view, and outputs detailed behavior sequence as well as specific events (such as eating, drinking, nose-poke, staying in specific zone, etc) as well as digital event inputs (e.g., TTL input changes by photo-beam, lever-pressing, etc.).
System Requirements
- Windows-based PC (XP, 2000)
- Intel high-speed processor (Pentium 4 or better)
- Special videocard for real-time analysis
- Large HDD capacity for storage
- Good lighting conditions
- IR camera or red light for dark experiments
- Video-multiplexer for multi-camera feed
ChamberScan system comprises two cameras placed inside an operant chamber, one camera from the top and another from the side. Video from the two cameras are combined and synchronized for analysis. Custom designed chambers or specialty cages are also good candidates for analysis.
Flexible and powerful exporting tools are provided, which allows the user to get results in the format they want. Advanced features such as protocol control (starting/stopping of recording), batch mode, and result review are supported. Double-clicking each behavior record in the event record window or the behavior sequence window will playback the video segment corresponding to that occurrence, facilitating validation and detailed study. It also provides sophisticated and easy to use experimental data management system, and advanced feature-based group export function to allow export of multiple animals’ results into a comprehensive Excel file. Powerful visualization mode allows review of the analysis process, ability to load alternative parameter settings, and export of various statistical measures and graph data.
ChamberScan can perform high-throughput analysis of 2 arenas per system.
Complete turnkey systems (including all necessary hardware and software) are available. Custom design of your environment to facilitate analysis, including lighting condition setup, IR/red light setup, cage enclosures, video integration, and video-feed to computer is also available.