If you want to analyze the movement and behavior patterns of animals, Vicon has a versatile, robust and easy to use system for you. All types of animals - from horses to birds, fish to dogs, rodents to insects. Whether your goal is to understand animal biomechanics, to analyze behavior or simply to record positions, Vicon can provide the right solution.
ANY MEASUREMENT VOLUME IN ANY ENVIRONMENT
Vicon systems can be installed in any environment -paddock, kennel, zoo, jungle, or laboratory to measure animal movement. Measurement volumes can range in size from a tiny millimeter space to the size of a barn. Whether indoors or outdoors, daylight or night time, winter or summer, a Vicon solution can be designed to fit your needs.
QUALITY HARDWARE. QUALITY SOFTWARE.
Whether you are utilizing optical capture or video-based motion capture technology, Vicon can provide you with unparalleled motion measurement systems utilizing the best in hardware and software. Our hardware line features the Vicon MX camera with sub-millimeter accuracy.
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Given the often unpredictable nature of working with animals, a major benefit of the Vicon systems is that they are designed to be durable. This ensures that the impact of accidents is minimized. If an accident should occur, such as the animal knocking a camera on to the floor, the most likely outcome is that you can put the camera back in its original position and it will work fine. In addition, our hardware integrates into powerful analysis packages that have been utilized by leading animal researchers over the last 20 years.
SMALL, VERSATILE MARKERS – OR NO MARKERS
Whether your application requires the speed of a marker-based system or the flexibility of video tracking, Vicon offers robust solutions where conducting studies will have minimal or no impact on the behavior of the animals. The markers are small, lightweight, and easy to replace if the animal dislodges any of them. A large range of marker sizes is available, down to 1mm in diameter. If markers are simply impractical, our video-based manual solution provides the versatility and accuracy for capturing kinematic data.
FLEXIBLE BIOMECHANICAL MODELING LANGUAGE
The open nature of Vicon’s specially designed script language for biomechanical models means that modeling is as easy for animals as it is for humans. All the features applicable to bipeds such as joint angle output, joint moments and forces can be used in quadruped models. BodyBuilder software allows the researcher to write processing scripts in popular third-party packages such as MatLab or LabView – and to integrate these scripts in the processing pipeline.
REAL-TIME BIO-FEEDBACK
Biomechanical models suitable for animals can also be applied in real-time, allowing instantaneous kinematic feedback. If the requirement is simply to know the position of the animal, attaching simple, lightweight marker configurations allows you to track the positions and orientations of any number of creatures. The data can be streamed into Vicon’s own real-time visualization software or it can be streamed via a simple network protocol to third-party applications.
RIGHT-SIZED PRECISION
When you need to record very fine movements, down to sub-millimeter accuracy, the Vicon MX system can help. When you need to analyze a horse jumping a fence, Vicon Motus will get it captured. Regardless of the movement which needs to be analyzed, a Vicon system has the right level of precision for your application.
Example Applications
Both the Vicon Motus and Vicon MX systems are used in the field of Animal Science. This section briefly explores how each system is used in practice.
VIDEO ANALYSIS WITH Vicon Motus
For applications where marker placement is impractical or where the data measurement conditions are such that markers cannot be used, the Vicon Motus video-based solution allows you to capture movement. Whether underwater, at a race track, in a laboratory or in a paddock, the Vicon Motus Video system can capture and analyze the movement.
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As an example, we will describe how the system can be used to study the movements of a rodent.
1. Setting up the system
Vicon Motus can compute 2D positions from one camera and 3D coordinates from two to sixteen cameras. Since a rodent moves in 3D and we want to take measurements from both sides, in this example we will use four digital camcorders. The cameras are mounted on tripods around the performance area. The video can be recorded to tape or connected to a computer via FireWire cables and captured simultaneously to the hard drive. Once the cameras are in place, a stationary calibration frame must be placed in the performance area and videotaped. The frame must cover most of the perform area and be comprised of 20-40 points. Portable frames are available for volumes from 8 cubic centimeters to 10 cubic meters.
2. Preparing the rodent
If the lighting or background allows, contrasting markers can be placed on the points of interest and tracked automatically from the video images by the software. Otherwise, the points can be manually identified.
3. Recording the video
As the rodent moves through the measurement volume, the video is recorded.
If the video is recorded to tape, the clips are transferred later to the computer.
4. Designing the biomechanical model
The Motus point-and-click interface allows you to set up the number of points you want to identify, the angles to calculate, the virtual points to compute, and specifications for the body segments to create animated stick and solid figures.
5. Capturing the coordinates
Once the video is stored in the computer, the clips are played back sequentially, camera-by-camera, and the system and operator tracks the points of interest. Once all cameras are tracked, software reconstruction algorithms compute the 3D coordinates.
6. Data processing and display
After the locations of the 3D data points have been computed, 
angles, velocities, accelerations, etc. can be calculated. The Vicon Motus Report generator can display Cartesian graphs of any of the parameters and animate the display with video, stick figures and solid model figures. Animations can be converted to AVI clips and inserted into presentations and web sites, or select a moment of interest and print a full-page color report.
7. Data processing and display
After the locations of the 3D data points have been computed, angles, velocities, accelerations, etc. can be calculated. The Vicon Motus Report generator can display Cartesian graphs of any of the parameters and animate the display with video, stick figures and solid model figures. Animations can be converted to AVI clips and inserted into presentations and web sites, or select a moment of interest and print a full-page color report.
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FISH ANALYSIS Click on the icon to view fish being analyzed. |
DIGITAL OPTICAL ANALYSIS WITH VICON MX
This scenario looks at using a Vicon MX system to record the movements of a galloping horse for the purpose of biomechanical analysis.
1. Define the biomechanical model
Vicon MX offers a scripting language (BodyLanguage) specifically designed to make biomechanical model writing quick and easy. The language is general purpose, and equally applicable for humans and animals. It allows segments and joints to be defined with respect to the locations of the measurement markers on the animal.
Models can be created to generate kinematic and kinetic outputs such as joint angles and moments. As the model is completely customizable, there are no restrictions on marker placement, so the marker positions used to capture the horse’s movements can be designed to fit the experiment, rather than the other way around. Furthermore, because BodyLanguage has been in daily use for many years, a large repository of existing models are available so you can get going straight away.
2. Setting up the capture volume
Measuring a galloping horse involves a relatively large volume; obviously depending on how many strides you want to record. Vicon MX cameras offer a choice of lenses, enabling a single camera to have a very wide or a narrow field of view, depending on the requirements. For an appropriate volume to capture a galloping horse (10m long x 3m wide by 3m high), a mix of wide angle and long lenses can be used with appropriate marker sizes to guarantee good camera coverage and good data.
3. Preparing the horse
Vicon MX markers are very lightweight and versatile. They come with plastic bases enabling them to be attached to just about anything that moves, so attaching the markers to the horse is quick and straightforward (at least as long as the horse is willing to co-operate). Once the markers are attached, the horse will hardly notice their presence, ensuring that the equipment itself does not affect the measurements.
4. Conducting the measurements
Vicon Nexus software makes the recording phase quick and easy. Data can be visualized within seconds through the software’s automatic pipeline operation. This enables the user to select a series of operations (such as 3D tracking, automatic labeling and model execution) which are run in sequence automatically after the user has pressed “Stop” to complete the capture. This instant visualization technique enables you to immediately assess whether the data fulfills the requirements before the next measurement is taken.
5. Analyzing the data
As soon as the necessary measurements have been obtained, the operator can start preparing the final analysis. Vicon offers the flexibility of either using the Polygon report authoring software to generate a multimedia report or exporting the data to third-party applications – the flexibility to choose the right process is yours.
Relevant Products
Vicon Motus
Vicon Motus 2D Standard Video System. Enables movement tracking and analysis in two dimensions using a digital camcorder and PC or laptop.
Vicon Motus 2D Optical Capture System. Effortlessly collect primary angles, displacements and speeds of single plane motion by placing contrasting markers over joint centers and connecting a digital optical camera to a computer.
Vicon Motus 3D Field Collection System. A practical system to acquire 3-D coordinate data with standard digital camcorders, without any need to take computers into the field.
Vicon Motus 2D or 3D High Speed Tracking Systems. Track high speed or intricate movement in 2-D and 3-D with high-speed video cameras operating up to 10,000 frames per second.
VICON MX
MX Giganet . The heart of the most advanced, most accurate digital optical Vicon system to date, the MX Ultranet HD is the central system unit, coordinating the operation of up to 244 cameras in a single system and an unlimited number by combining two or more systems. As well as enabling you to connect up to 244 cameras it can also synchronize data from force plates, EMG, foot switches and other 3rd party measurement devices.
MX Cameras. There are four MX cameras available: MX-T160, MX-T40,MX-T20 and MX-3+. The camera number corresponds to its resolution - the MX-3+ has 0.3 million pixels, the T20 has 2 million, theT40 has 4 million pixels and the T160 has no less than 16 megapixels . Regardless of the resolution, they all capture the marker images using grayscale technology, ensuring maximum accuracy. The cameras also have on-board processing that calculates marker centers - or, if you choose, all the gray-scale marker images can be sent to the processing PC.
Vicon MX Workstation. Easy to use, single click capture application, used to drive the Vicon MX hardware. It includes Vicon MX’s integrated data management system, Eclipse. Supported by all the MX applications, Eclipse enables the user to easily locate, access and manipulate all the data files associated with an experiment or trial – all the 3D data, force plate data, patient notes and so on. Everything under one management structure, so you don’t have to spend time looking for it.
BodyBuilder. Flexible kinematic and kinetic modeling tool enabling the creation of completely custom models through its built-in, optimized scripting system, BodyLanguage
Plug-in Modeler. Plugs into MX Workstation to enable you to automatically process captured data through any custom model created in BodyBuilder.
OLGA. Innovative technique to calculate joint centers and segment orientations more accurately and consistently by optimizing measured movement across the entire trial.
External System Plug-ins. A wide variety of plug-ins is available for Vicon, including data exporters for LifeModeler and SIMM.
DV Video. Simply and inexpensively capture digital video (DV) movies synchronized with Vicon MX 3D data, all set up and controlled through MX Workstation capture software.
PECS. Specifically designed for researchers who wish to incorporate their own export or processing algorithms into the automated workflow, the PECS plug-in allows full read/write access to the gait data from third-party applications, such as MatLab and Microsoft Excel.