ANY-maze Help > The ANY-maze reference > The Protocol page > The elements of a protocol > Testing > Auto-starting tests
Auto-starting tests
Introduction
There are multiple ways to start a test in ANY-maze, but without extra equipment (like a remote control), they all require the experimenter to be at the computer to press a key or click a button. The trouble with this is that the apparatus might be in a different room from the computer. This can cause a delay between placing the animal in the apparatus and starting the test, as the experimenter rushes back to the computer. This is the issue that the ANY-maze auto-start feature is designed to address.
| • | How auto start works |
| • | Using fast auto-start |
| • | Starting tests without using auto-start |
| • | Using a remote control together with auto-start |
How auto start works
Auto start works by tracking you, the experimenter, in the part of the video image which isn't the apparatus. When you enter this area to place the animal in the apparatus, ANY-maze registers your presence - and as you leave, it starts the test. Thus, the only delay is between the time you place the animal in the apparatus and the time you leave the camera's view. In some cases, this short delay can be a problem, in which case you can opt to use fast auto-start, which only waits for you to leave the immediate vicinity of the maze (there's more about this below).
You may wonder what happens if you just enter the camera's view for some other reason, to clean the apparatus for example - won't ANY-maze start a test when you leave? The answer is no, because to start a test you DO have to press a key; it's just that you press the key before you enter the camera's view. This primes the system, ready to start the test when you leave. Thus, a normal sequence of events is something like this:
| 1. | You press a key on the computer's keyboard to tell ANY-maze to get ready to start a test. |
| 2. | You walk into the camera's view with the animal - ANY-maze starts to track you. |
| 3. | You place the animal in the apparatus. |
| 4. | You leave the camera's view as quickly as possible - when you leave, ANY-maze registers this and starts the test. |
| 5. | The test ends for some reason, and you enter the camera's view to retrieve the animal. As ANY-maze isn't waiting to start a test, it ignores you. You can enter and leave the camera's view any number of times, perhaps to clean the apparatus without affecting the system. |
| 6. | When you're ready to start the next test, you go back to step 1, above. |
Using fast auto-start
 | ANY-maze's fast auto-start feature is designed to work with water-mazes. It may provide satisfactory results in other types of apparatus too, but we make no claims for this. |
Normally auto-start works by detecting you, the experimenter, in the area of the video picture which is not part of the apparatus and then waiting for you to leave - when you leave, the test starts. Although this works well in most apparatus, in the water-maze the animal will often start swimming immediately it's placed in the water, and unless you can exit the camera's view very quickly, the animal may have swum an appreciable distance before the test begins.
To overcome this, you can choose to use Fast auto-start which only requires that you exit the immediate area of the maze before the test starts. The way this works is that ANY-maze creates a thin 'halo' around the edges of the apparatus - see figure 1 - and looks for your hand entering and then exiting this area - the exit starts the test.
There is one caveat to fast auto-start;, it requires that there's good contrast between your hand/arm and the background of the area close to the apparatus - otherwise, ANY-maze simply won't see you.
Figure 1. When using fast auto-start, ANY-maze waits for your hand/arm to enter and then exit the shaded area close to the apparatus - the exit triggers the test start. Note that in this example, you would need to be wearing white gloves or have a white sleeve in order for the system to 'see' you against the dark coloured background.
Starting tests without using auto-start
You don't have to use auto-start to start tests; instead, you can either:
| • | Press a button on a remote control |
| • | Press a key on the computer's keyboard. |
| • | Click a button on the computer's screen. |
| • | Press a switch connected to an input of an I/O device. |
Using a remote control together with auto-start
Normally, when you use auto-start, you first press a key or click the 
Start Test button. This changes the test from being Ready to Waiting to start, after which you place the animal in the apparatus, and as you leave, the test starts automatically. But if you have also set the apparatus to allow tests to be controlled by a button on a remote control, what should pressing the remote control button do?
The answer is simple: it will ALWAYS start the test (assuming the test is 'startable' - i.e., nothing is preventing it from starting, such as a requirement to weigh the animal).
For example: If the test is Ready and you press the remote control button, the test will START, it will not change to Waiting to start. Similarly, if the test is Waiting to start and you press the remote control button, the test will also start.
This behavior is by design as it effectively provides two ways to start a test, allowing you to use either method for any test in the experiment without changing any settings:
| • | You can use auto-start in the standard way described above. |
| • | You can place the animal in the apparatus and press the remote control button, just as you would if auto-start were not enabled. |
See also:
| • | Testing do's and don'ts |
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ANY-maze help topic T0573