Questions and Answers
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- Why are Galilei CageTalkers® a sustainable solution?
There are many suppliers of electronic shelf labels on the market. When we had to make our decision, we chose Pricer because it is the only supplier that works with infrared data transmission. We did not dare to support a product for which there are no validated studies on human and animal exposure to active electromagnetic radiation. With infrared light we can a) eliminate this risk and b) be sure that only cages of the room in which the transceiver is attached are detected. |
- Why did you decide to use an elaborate self-developed solution for communication with the label server?
- In laboratory animal management, special requirements play a decisive role. Since important decisions are made and documented on site in the animal room on the basis of cage cards, we had to ensure that it is always traceable which cage card display was at which time at which cage or is now at which cage. It is also more comfortable for the animal welfare officer to view the cage cards in a sorted order than to have to put complex queries on the database. Audit reports and billing records had to be generated in an animal facility specific manner. Last but not least we had to provide a tool, which makes it easy for Animal Management Software provides to integrate the CageTalkers® system.
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- In contrast to price tags on shelves in shops, cage cards on cages in experimental animal facilities are handled much more dynamically. Any change in cage contents must result in an update of the cage card. Be it in breeding, in experiments or in stock. The cage contents and the status of the animals and cages must be constantly documented and reported. If animal husbandry is to be managed sustainably and made comprehensible from a 3R perspective, additional services such as the forwarding of “alerts” are also required. All these requirements could only be met with a special application.
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- In fact, we do not know which Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) solutions will become widely accepted for which markets. There are many different aspects to consider. Do we need cage tracking indoors or outdoors? What role does the localization of cages play. How are the animal rooms equipped with communication technology? How can solutions be easily maintained. How is the troubleshooting. How can standard connections to existing solutions be realized? How flexibly can changes to the labels be implemented? What happens with the historization? We have therefore developed our own middleware for the CageTalkers® services, so that theoretically we could also integrate other label systems that support SOAP or REST. However, for animal husbandry we are 100% convinced of the infrared technology. Since we work with our own medium, we can exclude external disturbances, which makes maintenance much easier
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- What is the ideal workplace for the documentation of animal transactions and cage transac tions?
We believe that documentation should be as simultaneous as possible to the physical animal transactions. In fact, we have not only given a lot of thought to this but have also developed solutions. For example, to achieve this simultaneous documentation we have developed a mobile, battery-operated worktable with monitor holders and integrated RFID readers for reading RFID-marked cage card holders and an integrated printer. In the end we had the problem that the printers and paper cutters in a clean room could not be operated reliably enough and the service in clean rooms showed to be complicated. Out of the necessity to solve this, the electronic cage card, which combines display, identification, signaling and a central control e.g. from the IT department, was born as the first step. In the continuation of this development, the web services and an application were created to combine colored buttons with a mobile app or the AMS and to communicate these “alerts” to the outside world. Now the notified user entering the animal room later, can see all cages, on which cages work must be done by seeing the LED flashes and the buttons. |
- With which Animal Management Systems do the CageTalkers® work
Basically CageTalkers® work with all AMS that integrate our standard Web Service. These messages can be structured very deeply down to the animal level with their services and medical records or only on cage level. We have tried to make the integration as easy as possible and left the AMS supplier the greatest possible freedom in the interface. This are SOAP messages that send the cage card data in an XML string. We render this string and convert the data into images. We also support our AMS partners and customers with sample XML files and layouts to be loaded and tested with the ClientApp. |
- Is the AMS data changed in any way?
No, we do not change anything. We take the data from the web service into our database and generate the CageTalkers® images based on the templates agreed upon with our customers. |
- Is new data being entered in any way?
What we receive from the AMS is not touched. Only if the AlertButtons are used together with the AlertButtonApp. Buttons can basically be used with and without the AlertButtonApp or with the mere web services. If the AMS uses the AlertButton web services absolutely nothing is added. If you want to send the alerts automatically, first scan the CageTalker and then enter the buttons by confirming the button in the Alert selection or by scanning the NFC ID of the button. |
- Are there data security problems when data is to be sent into the customer’s network?
This question only applies if the label server is hosted in the cloud. Our customer must then provide us with an IP address to which we can for example send the data via port 950. The data, in this case images, are then forwarded to the fixed IP of the base station via so-called forwarding rules on the firewall for certain ports and defined IP addresses. As there are no possibilities to branch off from this port which directly leads into the base station, this is a secure solution. If a customer still has a problem with this, we can alternatively attach the base station to a G4_Router with a SIM card and send the data independently of the customer's network. The prerequisite is a reasonable mobile connection. |