Mouse Scampers on Giant Trackball, Plays Quake
source: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-10/mouse-scampers-giant-trackball-plays-quake
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- pjacobs51
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Lab mice can say goodbye to clunky old non-virtual mazes.
In this video, a mouse runs through a virtual maze derived from a Quake 2 level, by steering a trackball suspended on a jet of air. Obviously the Princeton scientists did this because it's awesome, but the ostensible reason is because it gives them unprecedented access to study the neurological activity of the rodent while it moves around.
Neuroscientist David Tank was able to study the individual neurons in the hippocampus that control motion; a scientific feat that hasn't previously been achieved. The neurons of mice scurrying through a real maze jostle around too much, so this system, where the maze moves and the mouse is stationary (held in place by a little collar) is a triumph.
I think I've played against this mouse.
In this video, a mouse runs through a virtual maze derived from a Quake 2 level, by steering a trackball suspended on a jet of air. Obviously the Princeton scientists did this because it's awesome, but the ostensible reason is because it gives them unprecedented access to study the neurological activity of the rodent while it moves around.
Neuroscientist David Tank was able to study the individual neurons in the hippocampus that control motion; a scientific feat that hasn't previously been achieved. The neurons of mice scurrying through a real maze jostle around too much, so this system, where the maze moves and the mouse is stationary (held in place by a little collar) is a triumph.
I think I've played against this mouse.
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Gavinbedford
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But do they get virtual cheese at the end of it? That'd suck for them
- 2 years ago
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Gavinbedford
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hell0everything
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Awesomest treadmill ever! Except for the fact that I already feel motion-sickness setting in just watching the li'l guy get through the maze =P
- 2 years ago
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hell0everything
