Measuring Behavior '96 was the venue of the first international meeting for users of EthoVision and The Observer. This meeting, organized by Noldus Information Technology, was primarily intended for users of EthoVision and The Observer but open for any other participant with an interest in these systems.
The User Meeting was divided in three parts: one focusing on EthoVision, one focusing on The Observer (including the Video Tape Analysis System), and a general presentation of Noldus Information Technology's view on future development of software and instrumentation for behavioral research.
Frequently Asked Questions, Problems and Solutions. Under this title, Jurgen Smit reviewed commonly asked questions and practical problems with respect to EthoVision and how these can be solved. Jurgen's talk focused on three operational issues: how to deal with reflection, how to use (apparent) size differences to identify animals in a group, and how to use color markers to identify animals in a group.
Product Development. On behalf of the EthoVision development team, Marc Buma offered the audience a peek in our product development kitchen. He explained how our research and development efforts are divided between custom software development (e.g. automatic trial control, advanced calibration), new releases of EthoVision and research projects such as Eureka and EntoTrack. As far as EthoVision updates are concerned, Marc gave a preview of the functionality of EthoVision 1.90, to be released around the turn of the year, as well as the new versions planned for 1997.
Product Development. Aurelia Kwint spoke on behalf of the development team of The Observer. She gave a brief outline of the most significant improvements and additions in the next release of The Observer, planned for the first half of 1997, as well as the medium- and long-term development issues. Besides that, she discussed future development of The Observer for the Macintosh.
Under this title, Lucas Noldus outlined the company's long-term view on the development of tools for behavioral research. His talk covered the following issues:
Under the banner New Services for Users, the startup of an Internet user group
was announced. Via an on-site questionnaire, the participants in the meeting were
invited to express their opinion on three aspects of this initiative:
The presentations were followed by a lively discussion. Together with the participants we conclude that the first international user meeting was a great success. We look forward to seeing you at a next user meeting!