The TreadmillIO project (which needs a better name!) combines a simple USB-based data IO module with a Python framework to provide a way to control behavioral experiments using a simple YAML-based configuration scheme. One particular focus of the project is to receive input from a rotary encoder to control auditory stimuli in a VR environment, but it is also convenient to use for experiments in freely moving animals. In conjunction with the PyRenderMaze project, a simple OpenGL-based visual VR environment can easily be deployed.
Some sample sound stimuli can be found in the simple-sound-stimuli repository.
The software is currently tested on Ubuntu Linux. The low-latency audio framework relies on ALSA, which is Linux only, and the UVC WebCam capture interface has only been tested on Linux. However, the project should otherwise work across platforms. Pull requests for Windows or MAC compiling are welcome.
See the installation instructions for the software framework to get up and running.
Some example configuration files are available.
An example experimental setup using PschoPy-based stimuli is in the simple-pyschopy-visual-task project.