Automated Radial Maze

Tracksys is excited to introduce a new Automated Radial Maze. A unique design means the maze doors rise from the floor, eliminating the traditional guillotine doors. This means the maze can easily be used with tethered animals for electrophysiological and / or optogenetic experiments. The maze can be controlled by EthoVision XT with any protocol required.

Adding value to the new maze, the central section can be removed and replaced with inserts converting the maze to 'T' or 'Y' maze configuration. This also saves space and allows easy switching between different experiments.

The maze comes with options including IR or white light variants, and optional pellet dispensers. For more information on the new maze contact us.

EthoVision XT 13 released

Announcing the release of EthoVision XT 13 with a host of unique new features to increase what you can measure automatically, and what you can add to your tracking to get much more from your data.

• Automatic recognition of behaviours such as jumping and grooming.
• New functionality for the Manual Event Recorder including live and offline scoring, reduced speed (frame-by-frame) scoring and using scored behaviours for trial and hardware control.
• Define your own parameters via multi-condition variables e.g. based on heading, movement and location.
• Free interval analysis - compare behaviours before and after a time, behaviour or trial control condition.

For more information on the new version contact us.

BioLab new features from MindWare Technologies

There are a host of new features for BioLab - the free application, to view, edit and export data from MindWare hardware, including:-

• Integration with Noldus Media Recorder.
• Added support for event detection e.g. for synchronising with external systems such as eyetrackers.
• Support for user confirgurations created on different computers.
• Support for remote control and event markers via UDP.

Parent-Infant Sleep Lab. upgrade

The Parent-Infant Sleep Lab in the Department of Anthropology at Durham University has been updated to the latest Noldus software including Noldus Media Recorder and The Observer XT 14. The updates integrate with the existing Behavioural Observation Lab system that Tracksys installed.

Dr Charlotte Russell oversees the Lab which typically uses the Noldus software to record video of parents and infants for up to 10 hours together with synchronous physiology recordings. Both are then analysed in The Observer XT.

The Observer used to study learning in babies

Researchers at Dundee University have used The Observer in studies that show that babies can learn from social experiences in their first days of life. The well-established 'still face procedure' was used on one day and babies became distressed when this was repeated the day after; indicating learning. The Observer was used in frame-by-frame analysis of the responses of the babies.

'This research shows not only the impressive communicative sensitivity of the newborn infant, but also that they have the ability to learn about social interactions from the earliest age and to repair interactional errors'  Dr Emese Nagy.

Results of the research can be found here.

Tracksys on Facebook and Twitter

We now have social media accounts through Facebook and Twitter making it easier for researchers to keep up with developments, research activities and other news. Please join us and tell us what you think of what we offer and how we deliver it!