Syntalos

Syntalos is a software for timestamp-synchronized parallel data acquisition from diverse data sources

and for closed-loop interventions.

Among many other things, Syntalos supports:

Intan RHD/RHS systems, Open Ephys acquisition boards, and Neuropixels probes via remote SpikeGLX

UCLA Miniscopes for calcium imaging in freely moving animals

Many industrial and generic cameras

Microcontrollers and I/O boards via Firmata or MicroPython

Online signal and video processing

The modularity of Syntalos allows it to be used for a wide variety of experiments, and it often can be used

without any programming skills. Data sources, sinks, and processing blocks can be connected graphically with

virtual "wires" to form a data flow graph using drag & drop, to represent how data should be acquired,

displayed, or stored.

If more flexibility is needed, Syntalos can be extended with Python scripts, live-programmed microcontrollers,

or custom modules written in Python or C++.

For all data sources, Syntalos ensures timestamps of incoming data are aligned, so the individual pieces of

data can be correlated without additional processing or external synchronization.

Multiple Syntalos instances on different computers can also be started and stopped in sync over the network.

All data and metadata generated from an experiment run is stored in a well-defined, comprehensive structure,

making it easy to compare, pool, or share data between experimentalists with different research questions.