Low cost open source hardware and software in behavioral and electrophysiological experiments: Arduino & Raspberry Pi

Abstract
Behavioral science can be accelerated greatly by the use of digitally controlled devices capable
of measuring relevant parameters and, if necessary, interact with the experiment. Those
machines can be bought and they can do things in an implemented way. They are however
neither cheap nor as adaptive as they should be. The focus of this poster is to demonstrate
how to overcome the rather small barriers in order to develop their own machines. Recently,
open hardware projects like the Arduino or the Raspberry Pi draw enormous community
coding and building elements that can be fused together to fit the experimenters needs. We as
scientists can benefit from large numbers of projects that are documented well in the internet,
mostly by tutorial videos including component lists and code. Here we present a number of
simple suggestions how to build yourself helpful devices for your behavioral and
neurophysiological experiments.