Hello there!😃 You’re welcome to the Roadmap of the Actifield project.
This document identifies the project's vision, its current status, and how to reach the project’s end goal. It helps contributors keep track of the overall status of the project and recognize where their help is most needed. Please note that the roadmap is subject to change, and that contributions are also welcome to the document.
We are working with scientists and developers in Ghana to build a local open hardware community to empower scientists to develop their own lab equipment. We are currently working on upgrading, Actifield, a device for behavioural experiments that we developed for neuroscientists.
We’re building an equipment called an actimeter. At the simplest, the actimeter is used to measure and record the locomotor activity - how fast or slow a test animal (usually rodents), is moving. More details about Actifield here.
We developed this project for scientists who need a simple and inexpensive equipment that can be easily built.
Down below are a list of milestones that represent the overall goals of the project. Preferably, they are to be done in sequential order. But you can help in any task you feel comfortable with. Please read our Contribution Guidelines and our Code of Conduct 😉
- Get first community contribution
A community member files an issue or adds a pull request.
- Display live graphs of activity counts on screen
Figure out how to display the results as a live graph on the computer screen. Check out this issue
- Display an onscreen grid showing the current location of the mouse in the activity cage
Figure out how to determine and show the realtime location of the mouse in the test arena. Check out this issue
- Build graphical interface to control the device from the computer
- Check available disk space on SD card before recording counts
- Create manual for users to build or customise the device
Write a manual to guide new users to build or customise the device. Check out this issue
- Build project website
Build website (a GitHub page) to make it easier for users to find and explore our material. with useful resources for African scientists interested in developing their own equipment
- Organise training workshop
Organise training workshop on building open labware for Ghanaian scientists
- Build first prototype of Actifield
The first prototype of Actified has been built and the designs uploaded onto GitHub.
- Publish Actifield in a journal
Actifield was published in HardwareX. This will help provide credibility for academic users and a reference to be cited when used in research works.