Wageningen, 18 February 2003 - Noldus Information Technology now offers Theme 4.0. Theme revolutionizes the way to analyze behavior. The software discovers and analyzes hidden patterns in human and animal behavior. Theme has been developed by PatternVision. Noldus Information Technology has published the package and is responsible for worldwide exclusively marketing, sales and support.

"Theme is a truly unique product, in the sense that it uses unique methods and algorithms to automatically identify hidden patterns in sequential data sets", said Lucas Noldus, Managing Director of Noldus Information Technology. "Similar results cannot be achieved by visual inspection or by using standard analytical methods. Since Theme can be used in combination with data files generated by The Observer and EthoVision, it has a clear added value to our customers and perfectly complements the product portfolio of Noldus."

During pattern detection, Theme considers both the order and the time between behavioral events as well as their hierarchical organization. Once patterns have been detected, Theme offers various tools for the filtering, analysis and presentation of the patterns, on the basis of their behavioral content or quantitative criteria. Pattern statistics and graphs can be easily exported to other software packages, which is very useful when creating reports.

Theme has already been used extensively in studies of human communication, spoken dialogue, gestures, protocol analysis and sport analysis. Other applications are the analysis of human-computer interaction, detection of drug effects on animal behavior, behavioral disorders in humans and animals, and many more.

Organizations who have already licensed Theme include several universities in Europe and the United States, as well as major corporations such as Philips and McDonald's.  

PatternVision Ltd develops innovative software for the discovery and analysis of hidden patterns in a broad range of data structures. Its customers range from scientists and analysts to commercial business users. The company was founded in 2000 based on the extensive research and development work lead by Prof. Magnus S. Magnusson at the Human Behavior Laboratory (University of Iceland). Prof. Magnusson has worked for more than 20 years in the areas of behavioral science, statistics and lately in bio-informatics in collaboration with leading universities in Europe, the far East and the United States.