HabiTrak: low-cost, wireless home cage health and activity monitoring.

项目摘要 目前可用于自动化家庭笼舍健康和行为的商业系统 对小动物研究模型的监测通常是昂贵的， 与研究人员现有的饲养笼系统相结合。在第二阶段SBIR项目中，Vulintus， Inc.将继续开发和验证“HabiTrak”，这是一种微型低成本无线设备， 持续监测任何标准商业住宅内的小动物健康和活动 笼子HabiTrak设计利用传感器小型化的最新进展，将联合收割机 一套温度记录和环境传感器，采用小型、坚固的封装， 无线地放置在笼子里。Vulintus的第二阶段活动包括完成 硬件设计和开发交互式在线生态系统，以实时访问 HabiTrak数据。同时，HabiTrak将在三个不同的生物医学领域进行beta测试。 在德雷克塞尔大学、科罗拉多大学博尔德分校和 德克萨斯在达拉斯。Beta测试将有助于确定HabiTrak的准确性和实用性 测量，并指导如何HabiTrak可以最容易地 部署到现有的研究机构。在第二阶段结束时， HabiTrak系统将为研究人员和动物园提供前所未有的窗口， 他们的动物的健康和活动，特别是对模型需要密集的监督，并将 有助于识别和控制可能掩盖重大发现的干扰因素。

Project Abstract Currently available commercial systems for automated home cage health and behavioral monitoring of small animal research models are typically expensive and do not work universally with researchers’ existing vivarium cage systems. Under this Phase II SBIR project, Vulintus, Inc. will continue to develop and validate “HabiTrak”, a miniature low-cost, wireless device for continuously monitoring small animal health and activity inside any standard commercial home cage. The HabiTrak design leverages recent advances in sensor miniaturization to combine a suite of thermographic and environmental sensors in a small, robust package designed to be placed wirelessly inside the home cage. Vulintus’ Phase II activities include finalization of the hardware design and development of an interactive online ecosystem for real-time access to HabiTrak data. Concurrently, HabiTrak will undergo beta testing in three diverse biomedical research studies at Drexel University, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the University of Texas at Dallas. Beta testing will help to establish the accuracy and utility of HabiTrak measurements, and guide the development of protocols for how HabiTrak can be most easily deployed into existing research institutions. At the conclusion of this Phase II, a fully developed HabiTrak system will provide researchers and vivariums with an unprecedented window into their animals’ health and activity, particularly for models requiring intensive supervision, and will help to identify and control for nuisance factors that may obscure significant discoveries.