Table 1.
List of commercial systems available for Home Cage Monitoring categorized by platform used.
| Technology | System | Animal number | Raw data amount | Outcome parameters | Scalability (number of cages/simultaneous recordings) | Number of publications to date (Google Scholar) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Video | ||||||
| Any-maze Cage (Stoelting) | 1 (2 if fur color differs or | |||||
| dies) | High | Circadian Rhythm Profile, Distance Traveled, Cage | ||||
| Position | Easy | 1,200 | ||||
| Phenotyper Noldus | 1 | High | Circadian Rhythm Profile, Distance Traveled, Cage Position, Different Operant walls/Tasks, Fine Behaviors, Food/Water, Running Wheel | Medium | 3,560 | |
| Videotrack (Viewpoint) | 1 | High | Circadian Rhythm, Distance Traveled, Cage Position | Easy | 274 | |
| HCA (Actual analytics) | Up to 3 (with RFID) | High | Circadian Rhythm Profile, Distance Traveled, Cage Position, Social Interaction | Medium/Difficult | 15 | |
| HomeCageScan (Cleversys) | 1 | High | Circadian Rhythm Profile, Distance Traveled, Cage Position, Fine Behaviors | Medium | 134 | |
| Infrared beams | ||||||
| Smart Cage (Omnitech Electronics) | 1 | Low | Circadian Rhythm Profile, Distance Traveled, Cage Position, Rearing | Medium | 1 | |
| Ugo Basile | 1 | Low | Circadian Rhythm, Distance Traveled, Cage Position, Rearing | Medium | 1,650 | |
| AfaSci | 1 | Low | Circadian Rhythm, Distance Traveled, Cage Position, Rearing, Food and Drinking | Medium | 34 | |
| Kinder Scientific | 1 | Low | Circadian Rhythm, Distance Traveled, Cage Position, Rearing | Medium | 135 | |
| Photobeam Activity System (San Diego Instruments) | 1 | Low | Circadian Rhythm, Distance Traveled, Cage Position, Rearing | Medium | 262 | |
| Infrared Motion Detector (Starr Life Technologies) | 1 | Low | ||||
| Circadian Rhythm, Distance Traveled, Cage Position, Rearing | Medium | 81 | ||||
| Sensitive plate | ||||||
| Laboras (Metris) | 1 | Low | Circadian Rhythm, Distance Traveled, Cage Position, Circling Behavior, Fine Behavior | Medium | 217 | |
| Activmetre (Bioseb) | 1 | Low | Circadian Rhythm, Distance Traveled, Cage Position, Wake/Sleep pattern | Medium | 3 | |
| RFID | ||||||
| Intellicage (TSE) | up to 16 (RFID) | Low | Circadian Rhythm, Different cognition tasks, Water | Medium | 117 | |
| Other technologies | ||||||
| DVC® Tecniplast | 1 or more (depending how many mice are allowed in one cage) | Very low (10 GB/Month for 70 Cages/Rack) | Circadian Rhythms, Distance Traveled (single mouse/cage), Running Wheel | Easy | 13 |
The second column provided how many animals can be monitored per unit. The third column indicates, on the base of the technology employed, the amount of raw data produced by each system (e.g., large for video and low for infrared beams). The fourth column indicates the parameters that can be extracted based on what is reported in the literature. In the fifth column, it is indicated the scalability of the systems: easy in case video source can be splitted over several subjects/or relative low cost per cage, medium when the purchase of new hardware is needed to monitor additional subjects, medium/high where combination of technologies requires significant investments per unit. In the sixth column it is indicated the number of publications, Google-scholar based, on the search with words combination: “X” indicates the name of the device and company (e.g., DVC Tecniplast), and “home cage,” and mouse, or mice. The patents and references have been excluded from the search. Search concluded on 18th September 2020. Please note that the table is based on our best knowledge provided by the companies’ website or publications content available on google scholar.