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[!includewhat-is-harp]
Time is a critical variable in systems neuroscience experiments. As setups increase in complexity, temporally aligning multiple datastreams acquired from different devices rapidly becomes more difficult. Exploring how neural circuit activity relates to animal behaviour requires precise timestamping of experimental events, so that neural and behavioural data can be accurately ordered in time.
Harp is being developed as a cross-institutional collaboration to develop an ecosystem of high-performance devices that make it easy for scientists to synchronize and extend the functionality of their setups. Harp devices should be able to configure, control, and track a wide range of peripheral devices such as cameras, LEDs, nosepokes, and motors. Connecting an extra Harp device to add functionality to a setup should be straightforward and place no extra burden on researchers.
From an engineering perspective, we also want to accelerate the development process of extending the functionality of a setup, and make it easier to develop new devices, deciding how these devices communicate a computer, and how researchers interact with the device. By agreeing beforehand how the entire ecosystem works together, from signal acquisition to analysis, we can support engineers not having to reinvent or attune protocols each time they wish to develop a new device. This leads to faster, cheaper, and more robust development of scientific tools.