Acquisition of a Kodak Ektapro EM 1012 Motion Analyzer System

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9318129 Biewener Accurate imaging of animal movements underlies studies of the neuromuscular control of animal movement and the biomechanics and hydrodynamics of animal function. Quantitative kinematic analyses of the movements of animal segments or of the animal itself can be related to simultaneous recordings of nerve firing, muscle activation, force generation and shortening, skeletal strain, or to visualization of flow patterns through or around the animal. Often, and especially for small animals, these movements occur at very rapid rates and over short time intervals. To record these rapid movements with reasonable time resolution can require imaging rates of greater than 1000 Hz. High-speed film analysis represents a central component of the P.I.'s and the three Co-P.I's research. For many years, we have carried out such studies by relying on 16 mm film recording and analysis to obtain imaging rates as high as 500 frames sec-1. Recent developments in high speed videography now make it possible to obtain even higher imaging rates using a video based recording and analysis system. This proposal therefore requests funds to purchase a high-speed video system to be installed as a multi-user facility within the Department of Organismal Biology & Anatomy at the University of Chicago. The equipment that we seek to purchase is a Kodak Ektapro EM 1012 Motion Analyzer System, equipped with an intensified imaging camera and analysis workstation. This system is capable of obtaining 1000 full frames sec-l under low light conditions, yielding excellent depth of field (essential to reliable monitoring of animal movement patterns). By partitioning the memory area onto which each frame is mapped, practical imaging rates of up to 6000 images sec-1 can be obtained. This system is state-of-the-art and is likely to remain so for many years. The Kodak Ektapro and competitive systems have been recently acquired by other labs working in these areas of biology. To remain competit ive with these groups and to provide a resource that will attract students who wish to pursue graduate training in biomechanics and neuromuscular biology, we believe that it is essential that we obtain such a system. While the cost of the system is too high to justify on a single investigator proposal, it is appropriate for use as a shared facility. This system is ideal for short-term, intensive use by an investigator/lab group (1 to 2 weeks), during which time considerable kinematic data can be recorded and later analyzed in the investigator's own lab after downloading the digitized image files onto removable high-density disk media. Our goal is to not only share this high-speed video system among each of our labs, but to make it available to students and research faculty in other units within the University. We also envision limited access by persons outside the University. The P.I. will oversee scheduling, use and maintenance of the equipment.