A portable system for recording neural activity in indoor and outdoor environments

We present a self-contained portable USB based device that can amplify and record small bioelectric signals from insects and animals. The system combines a purpose built low noise amplifier with off the shelf components to provide a low cost low power system for recording electrophysiological signals. Using open source software the system is programmed as a simple USB device and can be connected to any USB capable computer for recording data. This simple and universal interface provides the ability to connect to a variety of systems. Open source acquisition software was also written to record signals under the linux operating system. Performance analysis shows that our device is able to record good quality signals both indoors and outdoors and delivers this performance at a very low cost. Compared to larger systems our device provides the additional advantage of portability given that it can fit into a pocket and costs a fraction of large systems used in electrophysiology labs.