[Motion-user] External commands?

[W. J. W. <wjw...@al...>]

Hi all,

Total newbie here, hoping for some guidance on a novel(?) use of motion.  I
do behavioral neuroscience research with earthworms, and want to use Motion
to monitor the movement and position of an individual worm on a surface of
about 15x15 inches.  I think that I can set the motion detection threshold
low enough that I can detect the slow movement of the worm if images are
not taken too frequently (something like a setting around 10 with images
acquired every half second - still playing with the parameters).
Environment is controlled and lighting is constant, so I can work with a
real low threshold like this.

Here's my question for now.  Documentation indicates that "Motion can
execute external commands based on the motion detection and related
events."  However, I can't find information concerning the nature of the
command.  Is it a C statment? Can the command do something as eleborate as
control the signal sent to the computer's parallel port?  If so I could
exert the kind of experimental control that I need (e.g., worm moves far
enough, turn off a light or turn on a vibratory stimulus).

See an earthworm in a running wheel at my web page:
http://campus.albion.edu/wjwilson/research/

Apologies if this is an easy question and I just overlooked the obvious
answer somewhere.  Thanks for any guidance,

Jeff

-- 
W. Jeffrey Wilson
Professor, Psychology Department
Director, Neuroscience Program
Albion College
wjw...@al...
campus.albion.edu/wjwilson