I have to calculate the distance an animal moves in a box over a 4 hr time period.I need to pull the data off a 4 hr long webcam video of the animal moving between two chambers in a box (area fixed). There is a divider in the middle of the box, so you cant see the animal for a few seconds as it moves to the opposite chamber. The movement isn't linear.
You could model the movement. I calculated foraging ranges for birds using a semi-mechanistic model, which incorporated attraction of fruiting trees due to distance and fruit level, flight speed, and residence time in trees. You might be able to do the same using similar parameters for your animals, such as feeding and sleeping times, walking speed, etc. :)
Hello,
Many free video software can be used to do that. See this former discussion for links: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Which_is_the_best_free_software_for_animal_video_tracking_and_behavioral_studies_of_captive_fish
Another simple and efficient solution is manual pointing & tracking. You can find a detailed protocol in this study: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5630276_Effect_of_body_length_and_temperature_on_the_crawling_speed_of_Protophormia_terraenovae_larvae_Robineau-Desvoidy_Diptera_Calliphoridae
Hope it will help you.
DC
Article Effect of body length and temperature on the crawling speed ...
If your data can be mapped then something as simple as Image J can do this very well. We calculated nonlinear distances traveled by zebra mussels by photographing the trails they left in sand and working from the digital photos in this paper: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236596717_Factors_Affecting_the_Movement_of_Adult_Zebra_Mussels_Dreissena_polymorpha
Same principle applies to any scale. So long as you can put a scale bar into your map, you could do this for microns traveled on a slide or kilometers traveled in habitat. It is important that each map has it's own scale. Once you calibrate to the scale in your map you can zoom in and out without impacting accuracy.
ImageJ is a free download.
Cheers
Declan
Article Factors Affecting the Movement of Adult Zebra Mussels (Dreis...
Maybe you already found your preferred tracking algorithm in the above answeres, other ways I can recommend the free image J plug in "Trackmate". It does a very good job I find, especially together with the many possible pre-processing tools in Image J. If you downlodad the "fiji" package instead of image J the trackmate plug in is included. It also comes with a good PDF manual that will guide you through the necessary steps to get started. Best wishes and good luck
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