Now that we've finished our last summer course, we have a little more time to take a breath and think about future product directions. In MED's current focus areas of computer vision and behavioral applications, we are introducing a vision system for video analysis of tail suspension. It is based on our new freezing system, which I would estimate of itself has well over 5 person-years of development. For people who have already purchased a Video Freeze system, the new tail-suspension module would be an inexpensive add-on. Each of the many systems we have developed since MED's beginnings in 1971 has required a lot of research and development effort; even with our 30-person R&D team, considerable effort is required to bring a new product online. But the bonus for our researchers (and us) is that add-ons, such as a tail-suspension option, are relatively simple modifications for an already solid system.

Another project we are finishing up is adding remote communication functionality to the SmartCR system for generating cumulative records of behavioral experiments. Our new version of SmartCR will enable real time cumulative record display on the same computer that is running Med-PC®. Furthermore, researchers will be able to communicate with computers running SmartCR via an Ethernet or Internet connection. This will allow them to access their data remotely; i. e., the researcher can display cumulative records in their office while their graduate students or support personnel acquire data with Med-PC® in the lab. This will also find applications in many other products.

Finally, the porting over to Vista is nearly complete for MED-PC® and we are proceeding with Open Field Activity Monitor.