Instrumentation for monitoring animal movements

Enhanced Tracking System Based on Micro Inertial Measurements Unit to Measure Sensorimotor Responses in Pigeons

“…At present, the gold-standard technique for the quantitative evaluation of complex behaviors is video tracking analysis (VTA), which, as the name suggests, relies upon post-hoc digital signal processing with the aid of sophisticated image processing algorithms [6]. While effective, this technique also has a number of limitations: 1) VTA provides only a twodimensional view, meaning that data from any out of plane movements, i.e.…”

“…A white hard plastic fiducial marker (14mm × 5mm × 3mm), with parallel, perpendicular black lines offset towards its front end, is affixed to the top of the pigeon's head with double-sided sticky tape. Control of the camera recording during experimental trials and the post-hoc frame-by-frame extraction of head angles are performed using custom National Instruments LabView software (see [6] for further details).…”