Researchers Develop a Real Bluetooth Mouse: A BLE-Connected, Lightweight Mouse Mind Reader
Designed for behavioral research and drug screening, the tiny transmitter offers wire-free electrophysiological recording.
Researchers from the Toyohashi University of Technology have developed a Bluetooth mouse with a difference: This one's not a computer pointing device but a low-power gadget designed to read a rodent's mind entirely wirelessly.
"Electrophysiological recording, which has made significant contributions to the field of neuroscience, can be improved in terms of signal quality, invasiveness, and use of cables," the team explains in the paper's abstract. "Although wireless recording can meet these requirements, conventional wireless systems are relatively heavy and bulky for use in small animals such as mice."
"We tackled the challenge of developing a lightweight and compact wireless neuronal recording system for use in mice and developed a 15×15×12mm [around 0.59×0.59×0.47in] system weighing 3.9g [around 0.14oz] with the battery," first author Shinnosuke Idogawa explains, "which is less than 15% of a mouse's weight (e.g., 33 g for a two-week-old C57BL/6 mouse)."
"Surprisingly, the wireless system demonstrates advantages of not only recording without using any cables, but also improvements in signal quality, including signal-to-noise ratios, compared to wired recording with a commercial neurophysiology system. In addition to these advantages, the developed wireless system costs USD $79.90, which is less than the wired system."
"We demonstrated the wireless system for single channel recording as our first step, but we can increase the channel numbers based on our system, and we are currently developing wireless systems for four-channels and more," adds team leader Associate Professor Takeshi Kawano. "Because we use Bluetooth technology, the device features will help us further develop small wireless neurophysiology systems with the advantages of good versatility and low cost for a wide range of users."
The team is looking at using the system to study both behavioral characteristics of mice and for murine-model drug screening, while also looking to extend the platform to other species including rats and monkeys. The paper, meanwhile, has been published to the journal Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical under closed-access terms.