TriKinetics (original) (raw)

TriKinetics systems quantify animal movement over time, and can be used to measure circadian rhythm, sleep, longevity, social interaction, geotaxis, learning, phototaxis, and drug response in various species of flies, mosquitoes, bees, spiders, ants, cockroaches, beetles, moths, zooplankton, and fish, among others.

Individuals or groups are placed in tubes, vials, or dishes, where they are continuously monitored for movement by simple and robust infrared beam arrays. The resulting data from as many as 3000 simultaneous activity channels, collected over periods of seconds, hours, days, or months, is uploaded periodically to a host Macintosh or Windows PC for archival storage and subsequent analysis.