Abstract
ABSTRACTEcological, 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.
Highlights
Many studies of biomechanics, animal behavior, evolution and ecology require that movement be quantified within complex three-dimensional (3D) environments
We provide a simple workflow and user-friendly graphical tools consisting of a new open-source software package named Argus, aimed at overcoming the hardware and software challenges of synchronization, lens distortion and analysis of multicamera 3D videography with consumer-grade cameras
*note: cx, cy, Aspect ratio (AR), s, t1 and t2 were held fixed during calibration
Summary
Animal behavior, evolution and ecology require that movement be quantified within complex three-dimensional (3D) environments. Laboratory-based studies of animal locomotion are necessarily limited in scope, and as yet, fewer studies have attempted 3D tracking in natural settings (Bahlman et al, 2013; Clark, 2009; Munk et al, 2015; Shelton et al, 2014; Sholtis et al, 2015; Theriault et al, 2014). Many studies focus on single individuals of select species performing standardized locomotor behaviors in a confined setting. Such findings, while providing incredible insight to many aspects of animal locomotion, are limited in scope. Some species are more difficult than others to maintain
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