ANY-maze Help > The ANY-maze reference > The Protocol page > The elements of a protocol > Inputs and outputs > Movement detectors > An introduction to movement detectors

An introduction to movement detectors

Introduction

As the name implies, a movement detector is a device that detects movement of the animal. It does this using an array of photobeams - as the animal moves, it breaks the beams and so the movement is detected.

Unlike video tracking, a movement detector can't determine such things as the distance the animal has moved or the speed at which it is moving, but it can provide movement 'counts', which can be compared to determine the relative amount of movement between animals, or groups of animals.

Although the depth of information that a movement detector can generate is far less than that provided by video tracking, they do have some advantages: They are not dependent on the contrast between the animal and the background; they're unaffected by lighting conditions, including changes in lighting during a test; and they're more lightweight, requiring far less processing power and generating much smaller experiment files than video tracking.

Physically connecting a movement detector to ANY-maze

Movement detectors are implemented as Photobeam arrays, and these are supported by the ANY-maze interface (AMi) and the ANY-maze Digital interface. These support stand-alone photobeam arrays, which are available in a range of sizes - full details can be found here.

See also:

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ANY-maze help topic T0182