TrackTaro is a software for monitoring and recording walking trajectory of small animals.

  Recently in the field of neuroethology, some methods for monitoring brain activities and behavioral changes simultaneously against stimulations, has been established and reported, by letting small animals such as rats and mice walking freely on treadmill systems and trackballs.

  However, existing behavior monitoring system has time resolution of merely around 30 ms. This time resolution problem has been a hard barrier for analyzing relations of nervous activities and behavioral activities, because these activities are in time resolution of a millisecond order.

  Moreover, for shortage of memory capacity of measurement system which monitors brain activities, it is sometimes hard to record over a long term. This problem often occurs in imaging methods.

  TrackTaro solves these problems and barriers by
  (1) Time resolution of 2.0 ms at maximum.
  (2) Trigger signals consisting of various combinations of behavioral parameters.

  Additionally, TrackTaro has functions of
  (3) Simple, quick and high-accuracy position acquisition utilizing optical mouse device.
  (4) Various drawings of behavioral trajectory.

  The following is an example experiment system using TrackTaro.

  In this example, TrackTaro starts recording when TrackTaro detects trigger signals from stimulation device. TrackTaro can also record stimulation marker signals from stimulation device to animals. Additionally, when unpredictable spontaneous action of animals happens, TrackTaro detects that action by multiple threshold of behavioral parameters, and output trigger signals to recording devices such as imaging device.

  TrackTaro is a software not including hardwares illustrated above. To realize high time resolution, there are some restrictions in using optical mouse and AD/DA card (board).

  To monitor behaviors of high accuracy, TrackTaro can calibrates conversion coefficient between real moving amount of trackball and mouse count. This calibration should be performed for each rotation axis. You can specify rotation count of calibration for each axis. Calibration of all rotation axis will correct subtle errors of mounting position of optical mouse. Moreover, calibration rotation count of trackball more increases, more precise accuracy of conversion coefficient between moving amount and mouse count. Since these calibration parameters can be saved to file, you can use calibration parameters of past experiment, once you have done strict calibration process when constructing experiment system.

  TrackTaro has time resolution of 2.0 ms at maximum. The following values are recorded and output to log file (CSV file).

  * Position coordinates of small animals on virtual plane.
  * Moving distance in the interval of time resolution.
  * Speed of translation movement.
  * Body angle of small animals.
  * Accumulation of body angles from the start of measurement.
  * Angular velocity of body axis.
  * Voltage level of stimulation signals.
  * Trigger signal output level to external devices.

  Usually, high speed videos and such are used for realizing high speed monitoring, but such systems are expensive and have problems how to synchronize with other devices. TrackTaro realizes high speed monitoring in a simple and concise way utilizing two optical mice.

  Using optical mouse is usually restricted inside a screen size of computer. But in TrackTaro, there is no restrictions of the size of virtual plane.

  In the experiment of behavior analysis using multiple devices synchronizing each other, it is useful to place a master timer device and synchronize all other devices under the domination of the timer. TrackTaro starts recording when it receives external start signal (TTL signal). TrackTaro also starts by manually pushing [Start Recording] button on the software screen.

  TrackTaro outputs trigger signals according to behavioral parameters. The following four parameters can be used for this purpose.

  * Body angle.
  * Angular velocity of body axis.
  * Moving amount of translation.
  * Speed of translation.

  You can configure thresholds of trigger signals to external devices using these parameters or combination of these parameters.

  By using this signal as a trigger to start external measurement devices such as monitoring brain activities, measurement device can be started in the timing of special behaviors of animals.

  TrackTaro analyzes output log and draws them in various ways. In the following sections, examples of TrackTaro drawings are illustrated.

  Draws walking trajectory with lines. Line width and color can be set for each lines. It is also possible to change colors only for walking trajectory of the timing of stimulation. The following example shows black line when no stimulation occurs, and red line when stimulation occurs.

  Draws markers for each interval of a certain period. Marker color, shape, and size can be set for each markers. The following example shows lines with time markers of red circles in the interval of 0.5 seconds.

  Body axis can also be drawn. Drawing body axis in constant time interval will promote intuitive understanding of axis changes and behavior trajectory. The following example shows default image as head-tail representation in the time interval of 0.1 seconds. This default image consists of circle and line which means animal's head and tail direction.

  Any image can be used as a body axis representation. You can specify your own image file. Marker size, time interval, or other styles can be set as in the preceding section. The following example shows mouse image as an body axis representation. This image can be made with any paint software and can be loaded in TrackTaro.

    1. TrackTaro 1.0 Operation Manual

  TrackTaro ver. 1.0      Price USD 5,500 or EUR 4,500

  Now, we provide special offer as a campaign price USD 4,400 or EUR 3,800
only for first 20 buyers.

  Please feel free to send e-mail to the following address to buy TrackTaro, or to get detailed information for considering to buy.
   

  Payment is through a bank transfer. Payment after delivery is assumed for colleges, universities, and public research organizations. Prepayment before delivery is assumed for other organizations and individuals.

  We provide evaluation software to researchers considering to buy. Try to construct actual experiment system and evaluate the performance, accuracy and time resolution of TrackTaro.

  We also provide the service to customize TrackTaro software to satisfy your experiment needs. If you have requests such as to measure with AD/DA board of your choice, or to control with special behavior parameters, please contact us freely.

  We also sell the hardware package which consists of measurement computer, high-resolution mouse devices, AD/DA board and TrackTaro software. You can construct experiment system immediately, if you prepare only trackball. Please contact us for details.

  TrackTaro has been adopted to the following customers:
  Hokkaido University

  Chinou Jouhou Shisutemu Inc.
  Room 503 ASTEM, 134 Chudoji-Minami-cho,
  Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto, 600-8813, Japan
  TEL: +81-75-321-7300
  FAX: +81-75-321-7305

  Chief Developer: Dr. Takahiro UEOKA
  An experienced engineer in the field of image recognition and measurement control system. Detailed achievements and attainments can be viewed in the following URL.
  http://www.chino-js.com/en/service-engineer.html