Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK
Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi 484-8506, Japan.
Biol Open. 2014 Jun 27;3(7):656-68. doi: 10.1242/bio.20148086.
Obtaining quantitative data describing the movements of animals is an essential step in understanding their locomotor biology. Outside the laboratory, measuring animal locomotion often relies on video-based approaches and analysis is hampered because of difficulties in calibration and often the limited availability of possible camera positions. It is also usually restricted to two dimensions, which is often an undesirable over-simplification given the essentially three-dimensional nature of many locomotor performances. In this paper we demonstrate a fully three-dimensional approach based on 3D photogrammetric reconstruction using multiple, synchronised video cameras. This approach allows full calibration based on the separation of the individual cameras and will work fully automatically with completely unmarked and undisturbed animals. As such it has the potential to revolutionise work carried out on free-ranging animals in sanctuaries and zoological gardens where ad hoc approaches are essential and access within enclosures often severely restricted. The paper demonstrates the effectiveness of video-based 3D photogrammetry with examples from primates and birds, as well as discussing the current limitations of this technique and illustrating the accuracies that can be obtained. All the software required is open source so this can be a very cost effective approach and provides a methodology of obtaining data in situations where other approaches would be completely ineffective.
获取描述动物运动的定量数据是理解其运动生物学的重要步骤。在实验室外，测量动物的运动通常依赖于基于视频的方法，由于校准困难且通常摄像机位置有限，分析受到阻碍。它通常也仅限于二维，考虑到许多运动性能本质上是三维的，这通常是一个不希望的过度简化。在本文中，我们展示了一种基于多台同步摄像机的 3D 摄影测量重建的完全三维方法。这种方法允许基于单个摄像机的分离进行完全校准，并可与完全无标记和未受干扰的动物全自动配合使用。因此，它有可能彻底改变在保护区和动物园中对自由放养动物进行的工作，在这些地方，特别方法是必不可少的，并且进入围栏的机会通常受到严重限制。本文通过灵长类动物和鸟类的示例演示了基于视频的 3D 摄影测量的有效性，并讨论了该技术的当前限制，以及说明可以获得的精度。所需的所有软件均为开源，因此这是一种非常具有成本效益的方法，为在其他方法完全无效的情况下获取数据提供了一种方法。
