A neuromorphic camera for tracking passive and active matter with lower data throughput

We demonstrate the merits of an event-based camera (EBC) for tracking of passive and, in particular, active matter. For passive matter, we tracked the Brownian motion of different microparticles and estimated their diffusion coefficient. For active matter, we explored the case of tracking murine spermatozoa and aimed to extract motility parameters from the motion of cells. This has applications in enhancing outcomes for clinical fertility treatments. Using the EBC, we obtain results equivalent to those from an sCMOS camera, yet achieve a reduction in file size of up to two orders of magnitude. This is important in the modern computer era, as it simplifies data acquisition and analysis. We believe the EBC is an excellent choice, particularly for long-term studies of active matter.