Actas de congresos
Gps-Inspired Method For Rodent Tracking Using Arduino-Based Open Field And Fft Analysis
Fecha
2014Institución
Resumen
Due to the fact that video-based tracking methods for laboratory rats are expensive and time consuming,
a novel approach of the time dependent position was developed. In this work we show a new kind of cage
for performing open-field experiments in rodents, based on Arduino microcontoller and pressure sensors.
GPS trilateration method was used to obtain the rodent position, where Fast Fourier Transform(FFT), Position
over Time and Histogram were used to obtain valuable information for the rat behavior. For the data acquisition,
Python language was selected, due to its performance in low latency. On the other hand, Matlab was
used for its versatility and quick software prototyping. Video recordings for control rats and schizophrenic-like
animal models were acquired, binarized and stored for further analysis, while pressure recordings were also
obtained at the same time from the same cage. This allowed us to contrast our method with the video-based
tracking method. Pressure recording show the same movement patterns and inherent metadata obtained
from video analysis, but the time used to process all the data is faster than the video method. In summary,
results suggest that this new technique decreases substantially the amount of time devoted to analysis and
may allow online display of results.