Citing Whisker

As is customary, publications that use the Whisker control system should cite it appropriately. The reference publication for Whisker is the following:

Cardinal RN, Aitken MRF (2010). Whisker: a client–server high-performance multimedia research control system. Behavior Research Methods 42: 1059–1071.

Software distributor and prices

Campden Instruments Ltd currently hold a licence from Cambridge University Technical Services Ltd to distribute Whisker, and Whisker clients such as MonkeyCantab, worldwide. They also sell suitable hardware on which to run Whisker, should you not wish to set up the system yourself. Their American parent company is the Lafayette Instrument Company Inc. Their Japanese partner is Shoshin.

(Prior to 2004, Cambridge Cognition Ltd were the distributor.)

The following editions of Whisker are available:

Whisker Server (Basic Edition): controls digital I/O devices and provides all the core features of Whisker including timing and client-client communication. Sold by Campden/Lafayette as part numbers 80697 ("Whisker Standard") and 80697-P ("Whisker Standard with Prepared Schedules").
Whisker Server (Multimedia Edition): provides the featuers of the Basic Edition, but also controls audio devices and graphical display devices, and takes input from touchscreens, keyboards, and mice. Sold by Campden/Lafayette as part number 80696-pro.
Whisker Server (Embedded Edition for CANTAB): this edition supports and is supplied with CANTAB products but is not available for purchase as a stand-alone product. Sold by Campden/Lafayette as part number 80690 ("Whisker CANTAB").
Whisker Development Kit: includes support for developing Whisker clients in C++ and Visual Basic. Supplied with all programming editions of Whisker.

Specific clients are also available. The whole catalogue of tasks by the Whisker authors shown on this web site should be available for sale; part numbers have been issued for the following tasks:

MonkeyCantab: sold by Campden/Lafayette as part number 80696 ("CANTAB suite of tests including Whisker Multimedia").

All editions of Whisker use the same client-server design. Client tasks that do not use the multimedia features of Whisker will run with either the Basic or the Multimedia edition.

A single Whisker licence entitles the holder to use the Whisker server program on one computer, controlling as many devices (digital I/O lines, touchscreens, etc.) as that computer is capable of. No restrictions are placed on the number of clients that may be run, or the number of computers that may talk to the Whisker server over a network. Prices do not include hardware.

Contact Campden for prices.

Hardware suppliers

A full 'shopping list' is provided in the Whisker user guide should you wish to buy your own hardware.

Computer selection is up to you. Any PC capable of running Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP will run Whisker. We recommend a moderately fast PC (>200 MHz Pentium) for pleasant performance. If you plan to install a large number of extension cards (e.g. PCI interfaces), you may need an 'industrial' PC with more PCI slots than the norm, but bear in mind that it may be cheaper simply to buy more standard PCs, and this gives you more computers for other purposes.

Digital input/output (I/O) interfaces are supplied by

Amplicon Liveline Ltd, UK (http://www.amplicon.co.uk), such as the PC272E (ISA) or PCI272 (PCI) cards.
Advantech (http://www.advantech.com/).
ICS Advent (http://www.icsadvent.com/), e.g. the PCDIO24B-P ISA card - or any other card using the generic Intel 82C55 controller chip. ICS are a subsidiary of Kontron.
Other manufacturer's products may be supported soon; click here for details. For full specifications, see the manuals.

If you only plan to use digital I/O devices, that's all you need. However, if you plan to run a full multimedia setup, you may need some of the following devices:

Video card selection is at your discretion. Any video card supported by Windows NT/2000 should function. If you plan to use multiple displays, check that multimonitor functions are supported by the card, that the card is happy co-existing with all other video cards you plan to use in the same computer.

An example of a multi-display PCI video card is the Matrox G200 Multimonitor, which has been tested successfully.

Monitor selection is left to you.

If you plan to run a multimonitor display, you will probably want one (or more) monitors to serve as your Windows desktop, plus one or more monitors or LCD displays to go in your testing apparatus. (Remember you will need one video output per monitor.) However, to avoid this, Whisker gives you the option of controlling the experiment from a different computer, which may be useful for primate 'testing-computer-in-a-box' rigs.
Monitor selection will depend on your species requirements; LCDs are more susceptible to alterations in the viewing angle than CRTs, for example.

Touchscreens must be supported by the UPDD (Universal Pointing Device Driver) system from Touchbase (please note: www.touch-base.com, not www.touchbase.com). Most touchscreens presently available have UPDD support. Aside from this, no limitations are imposed. Selection will also depend on your species requirements (e.g. infrared or capacitative touch detection).

Intasolve Interact 400 touchscreens have been tested successfully.

Serial cards are usually necessary to drive the touchscreens; you will need one serial port per touchscreen. The card(s) must be supported by Windows NT/2000 and must co-exist happily with any other serial cards you wish to use.

An example of a multi-way serial card is the SeaLevel VersaComm+4 PCI, presently untested. BrainBoxes multi-way serial cards have been tested successfully.

Sound cards must be supported by Windows NT/2000 and must co-exist with other sound cards.

We are not presently aware of a multi-device sound card, though bear in mind that Whisker can generate two mono devices from a single stereo card, if the sound card is of sufficient quality not to 'leak' between its two channels. (Whisker cannot take advantage of 4-channel surround sound cards in the same way, and can only split these in two.)

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