An inexpensive remotely-operated video recording system for continuous behavioral observations

Video recording technology is an important tool for studies of animal behavior because it reduces observer effects and produces a record of experiments, interactions among subjects, and contextual information, however it remains cost prohibitive for many researchers. Here we present an inexpensive method for building a remotely-operated video recording system to continuously monitor behavioral or other biological experiments. Our system employs Raspberry Pi computers and cameras, open-source software, and allows for wireless networking, live-streaming, and the capacity to simultaneously record from several cameras in an array. To validate this system, we continuously monitored home-cage behavior of California mice (Peromyscus californicus) in a laboratory setting. We captured video in both low- and bright-light environments to record behaviors of this nocturnal species, and then quantified mating interactions of California mouse pairs by analyzing the videos with an open-source event logging software. This video recording platform offers users the flexibility to modify the specifications for a range of tasks and the scalability to make research more efficient and reliable to a larger population of scientists.