SonoPhenoScan can record and analyze any ultrasonic signal, especially those generated by pups or lab animals while in social encounters. The system can record ultrasonic signals through ultrasonic acquisition hardware, digitize it and record it in real time. A software component can further analyze ultrasonic signal either in real time or in offline operation to detect ultrasonic spikes, or chirps found in pup communications.
Another feature of SonoPhenoScan is that it can be used with several kinds of ultrasonic signal acquisition hardware, including lower end products like bat detectors as well as high-end products such as the B&K microphone system. SonoPhenoScan can work not only with the mini 3 bat detector, but also with the U30 bat detector. Furthermore, the recording and analysis of ultrasonic signals can be synchronized with behavior recording and analysis with any of our video-based behavior phenotyping products.
The picture at the top of this page shows a bat detector placed close to a pup to record its vocalizations. Beneath this picture is a SonoPhenoScan display showing the small segment of the ultrasonic vocalization signal plot. Notice the several spikes in the signal.
A data acquisition card along with a compatible bat detector is required for the SonoPhenoScan software. To perform video recordings simultaneously, a special video card is required. The full hardware and software solution for ultrasonic signal and video recording is called the SonoPhenoStation (a picture of a portable SonoPhenoStation is shown on the right).