Wireless and Sensor Networks 2005 EFITA/WCCA JOINT CONGRESS ON IT IN AGRICULTURE EthoLog: a tool for data acquisition on behavioral studies

In the Behavioral Sciences, there is demand for data acquisition tools to deal with the problem of event recording during experiments. Handheld computers can be used and customized for this task, offering flexibility, accuracy and speed. This paper describes an application for a PocketPC handheld computer that allows manually operated event datalogging. Among other features, the application software allows customization of the touch-screen buttons and the assignment of events to each button. The data can be exported to a desktop computer for further analysis on spreadsheets. It has been used successfully on field experiments and classes on bee communication and behavior in USA and Brazil. Although other datalogging software is available, none, to our knowledge, currently meet all the criteria of software that is free, user-friendly, compatible with both Mac and PC platforms, and capable of providing direct acoustic feedback during event recording.