ObjectScan
Novel object recognition is rapidly becoming a forerunner in behavioral testing among both academic and commercial laboratories. It is also referred to as "object recognition", "sniffing behavior assay", or simply, "NOR". NOR is a measure of learning and memory, and tests the ability of the animal to remember old objects and recognize new ones. It is therefore widely used by researchers studying genomics and drug effects. ObjectScan is designed to automate data collection for NOR.
Product Description [PDF opens in new window]
ObjectScan can automatically detect and record rodent sniffing behavior information that includes the object sniffed, duration of sniff, number of sniffs at objects, relative sniffing duration with respect to other objects, etc. The system uses video taken from the top view with objects placed in a pre-defined region. The camera remains stationary and is continuously focused on this region. ObjectScan allows the experimenter to remove, move or replace objects in the analysis region and re-analyze. The objects are labeled by the user. ObjectScan ensures that sniffing is counted only when the animal’s nose is in contact with (or within a specified distance of) an object, without the need to color the animal’s head, due to the fact that ObjectScan can reliably detect the nose of the animal at all times, except when the animal is curled up so much that the nose would not be discernable. ObjectScan can automatically identify important body parts of the animal such as nose, tail, forelimbs, hind limbs at all times.
[click to expand]
ObjectScan outputs the detailed sequential listing of behaviors with recorded sniffs on various objects. After completion, ObjectScan also outputs detailed summary statistics about the sniffing behavior on each object such as the number of sniffing behaviors on each object, the fraction of sniffs on each object, the average duration of sniffs, etc. Multiple cages or arenas numbering up to 20 (depending on size of arena and objects) can be analyzed simultaneously. Advanced features such as automatic stopping of recording for each cage, automatic enlargement/shrinking of objects are supported.
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
All detected sniffing events are output as a list. Double-clicking each item on the list will playback the video segment corresponding to that occurrence, facilitating validation and detailed study. ObjectScan also includes a sophisticated and easy to use experiment data management mode that organizes results of all animals/trials in an experiment in a database. From this database, the advanced feature-based group export function allows exporting of all or multiple results from a given experiment into a comprehensive Excel file. The powerful Visualization Mode allows full review of the analysis, ability to load alternative parameter settings, and export of various statistical measures and graph data.
Other applications for ObjectScan include choice test paradigms where the user needs to determine where the animal visits/sniffs amongst a multitude of options (odor tests). A similar paradigm where the animal needs to find hidden or buried pellets or objects in receptacles is also applicable for ObjectScan. The objects may also be other animals confined to a specific area, such as an animal placed inside a opaque/transparent cylinder (example shown in figure below). The cylinder is used as the object to determine if the test animal approaches and sniffs the cylinder or not.
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.