Jackson Brandon E, Evangelista Dennis J, Ray Dylan D, Hedrick Tyson L
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Longwood University, Farmville, VA 23909, USA
Weapons and Systems Engineering, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD 21402, USA.
Biol Open. 2016 Sep 15;5(9):1334-42. doi: 10.1242/bio.018713.
Ecological, behavioral and biomechanical studies often need to quantify animal movement and behavior in three dimensions. In laboratory studies, a common tool to accomplish these measurements is the use of multiple, calibrated high-speed cameras. Until very recently, the complexity, weight and cost of such cameras have made their deployment in field situations risky; furthermore, such cameras are not affordable to many researchers. Here, we show how inexpensive, consumer-grade cameras can adequately accomplish these measurements both within the laboratory and in the field. Combined with our methods and open source software, the availability of inexpensive, portable and rugged cameras will open up new areas of biological study by providing precise 3D tracking and quantification of animal and human movement to researchers in a wide variety of field and laboratory contexts.
生态学、行为学和生物力学研究通常需要在三维空间中对动物的运动和行为进行量化。在实验室研究中，实现这些测量的常用工具是使用多个经过校准的高速摄像机。直到最近，这类摄像机的复杂性、重量和成本使得在野外环境中部署它们存在风险；此外，许多研究人员也负担不起这类摄像机。在这里，我们展示了价格低廉的消费级摄像机如何能够在实验室和野外充分完成这些测量。结合我们的方法和开源软件，价格低廉、便于携带且坚固耐用的摄像机的可用性将为生物学研究开辟新的领域，通过在各种野外和实验室环境中为研究人员提供对动物和人类运动的精确三维跟踪和量化。
