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VIDEO DATA ACQUISITION FOR MOVEMENT RESPONSES IN INDIVIDUAL ORGANISMS
Author(s) -
LIPSON EDWARD D.,
HÄDER DONATP.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
photochemistry and photobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.818
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1751-1097
pISSN - 0031-8655
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-1097.1984.tb08203.x
Subject(s) - computer science , analog signal , chart , plotter , bending , potentiometer , acoustics , computer vision , computer hardware , optics , artificial intelligence , voltage , computer graphics (images) , electrical engineering , materials science , physics , mathematics , engineering , digital signal processing , statistics , composite material
— We describe a simple approach for the semiautomatic acquisition of data from video recordings of movement responses of microorganisms. For a sessile microorganism like Phycomyces blakesleeanus , we describe an angle transducer consisting of a precision rolary potentiometer and a transparent ruler. This device is placed in front of a video monitor during playback from a time‐lapse video recorder. The experimenter maintains the ruler parallel to the image of the upper region of the bending sporangiophore; a voltage proportional to the bending angle is directed to a strip‐chart recorder. The chart provides a continuous and precise graph of the bending angle as a function of time, so that the latency, bending rate, and other parameters may be readily measured. For motile microorganisms, such as Euglena gracilis , paths from video recordings are traced onto acetate sheets during playback. A rotary and a linear potentiometer convert the angle and length of successive path elements into analog voltages which are transmitted by analog‐to‐digital converters to a microcomputer for subsequent statistical and mathematical treatment. The general approaches presented here should be applicable to the study of movement responses of many types of organisms.