SqueakPose Studio: An end-to-end platform for pose estimation and real-time edge-AI deployment
Accurate pose estimation underpins quantitative analysis of behavior, yet many deep learning-based tracking tools remain optimized for offline workflows that rely on fragmented software pipelines, workstation-grade GPUs, or external middleware to enable real-time deployment. Here we present an integrated software-hardware ecosystem for pose estimation that spans dataset creation, model training, offline analysis, and real-time deployment on embedded edge-computing devices. SqueakPose Studio provides a software suite for whole-frame, deep learning-based pose estimation that unifies dataset creation, manual and model-assisted labeling, model training, validation, and large-scale offline inference. The system leverages modern object-detection architectures to enable efficient end-to-end training and inference without patch-based sampling or multi-stage postprocessing, and supports execution on CPUs, GPUs, and Apple Silicon. For experimental settings requiring continuous recording and synchronized data acquisition, SqueakView enables real-time model deployment, video capture, and sensor logging on embedded edge-computing hardware, while MouseHouse provides a compact, modular enclosure designed for home cage-based experiments that integrates embedded GPU compute, microcontroller-based timing, and peripheral I/O. A shared data format and deterministic timing architecture ensure consistency across offline analysis and real-time deployment. Together, SqueakPose Studio, SqueakView, and MouseHouse provide a unified platform for pose estimation that supports both conventional offline analysis and embedded, real-time experimentation, without reliance on workstation-grade hardware or external middleware.
Authors
- David L. Haggerty (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1455-2557)
- Lovinger Dm
- Caleb B. Darden
Institutions
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
- Published
- 2026-01-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.24.700912
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Robot Manipulation and Learning
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 25.04
Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences