This team, from the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), won the award for their demo entitled “Live Demonstration: A Smart Homecage System with Behavior Analysis and Closed-Loop Optogenetic Stimulation Capabilities.” Jia (a Ph.D. student), Wang (a visiting student), and Mirbozorgi (ECE postdoctoral fellow) are members of the GT-Bionics Lab, led by ECE Associate Professor Maysam Ghovanloo.

In this live demonstration, the team presented a smart, wirelessly-powered homecage, called the Enercage-HC system, for conducting behavioral and electrophysiology research on awake, freely-behaving small animal subjects. The smart homecage is equipped with closed-loop wireless power transmission, wireless communication, automated tracking, and animal behavior recognition capabilities.

Wireless power is delivered in near-field at 13.56 MHz in the FCC-approved ISM-band through an array of coils designed to provide the entire homecage with homogeneous magnetic field. Bidirectional data transmission is accomplished at 2.4 GHz via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for communication with sensors and stimulators attached to or implanted in the animal body. A dual-mode 2D/3D imaging system based on Microsoft Kinect is used for animal subject tracking and behavioral analysis using an advanced real-time pattern recognition and machine learning algorithm.

Photo caption: Yaoyao Jia shows the Enercage-HC System at IEEE BioCAS 2015, held October 22-24 in Atlanta.

Photo caption: Abdollah Mirbozorgi (far left) and Yaoyao Jia were presented with the Best Live Demo Award at IEEE BioCAS 2015, held October 22-24 in Atlanta. Taking part in the presentation were ECE Assistant Professor Hua Wang (far right), who served as co-chair of the conference live demo session, and ECE Associate Professor Maysam Ghovanloo (second from left).