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Free
Flight Arena (Fly-O-Rama) |
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To study flight control behavior in freely-flying insects we
have constructed a large tracking arena which traces the 3D trajectories
of fruit flies as they fly within a controlled sensory landscape.
The flight arena consists of a 40 cm high, 1 m diameter cylinder.
The trajectories of the flies are reconstructed using a stereo
video system and appropriate software. Animals are visualized
using reflected light in the near infrared light, so that the
tracking procedure does not interfere with their visual processing
- an essential component to flight control. The interior of the
arena may be lined with arbitrary visual panoramas to assess the
effect on a fly's flight behavior. Given the resulting trajectory,
it is also possible to reconstruct an estimate of a 'fly's eye
view' of the arena. We can also place 3D objects and odor sources
in the arena to construct more complicated sensory environments.Movies
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