Hardware/ARMEBS/4/CBDM

Camera-based daphnia monitoring

Goal

Design a Cortex (STM32F4) embedded system for filming and detecting autonomously a daphnia and it's heart beat. The system should also be able to save and transmit image to a computer via USB.

Methods | Experience | Results

Daphnias are small (some milimeters) organism living in fresh water. Daphnia's heart rate vary depending on environmental change, for instance water pollution. Using Matlab, an algorithm has been designed for measuring the daphnia heart rate. For every image, the area containing the daphnia heart is averaged, then a Fourier transform is done giving the heart rate frequency.

Then a PC software has been designed to receive image from the embedded system, and for manually selecting the area around the daphia heart.

The Mathlab algorithm has been ported on the embedded system and tests involving a living daphnia locked in a trap has been done. Test have successfully demonstrated the ability of this system to measure daphina heart rate.