ICMMA 2020 International Conference on“Design of Comfortable Life using Mathematical Sciences"

Development of image-based
tracking software for animal
tracking (2)Project Webpage

http://ymnk13.github.io/UMATracker/

YAMANAKA Osamu （Meiji University, MIMS）

To quantitatively investigate the movement of animals, image-based
tracking software are used as valuable tools. Ordinarily tracking
software consist of manual tracking tool and automatic tracking tool.
Manual tool is time-consuming for the operation, and fully automatic
tracking tool strongly limits the experiment conditions. Thus, wedeveloped a semi-automatic tracking software. In this poster, I will
explain the features of our software and actual cases of use.

Improving the operation eﬃciency inthe analysis of animal behavior.

2 hours

15 minutes

The operation can be accomplished ina short time.

Motivation

Our proposed approach
Image processing

Tracking algorithm
Experiment setup
Top view

Experiment setup
Side view

Problem“It takes two hours to extract the position
coordinate of animals in two minute videos.”We developed the image-based tracking software.

Our software accomplish the task in 15 minutes.

Tracking errorcorrection system.

1. The user without expertise can be accomplish the task.
2. The tracking algorithm work without system error.
3. A user should be able to rectify tracking errors
manually and directly when errors occur.

Image processing

Tracking algorithm
The distances of two animals

The shape similarity

Based on the similarity of two index, the algorithm
identify animals in each video frames.

The user design the image processing using
the visual programming environment.

Yoon, Ju Hong, et al. "Bayesian multi-object tracking using motion context from multipleobjects." Applications of Computer Vision (WACV), 2015 IEEE Winter Conference on. IEEE,2015.

Tracking error-correction system

Analysis of Mate-guarding behavior
Mate-guarding behavior: they remain near a (potential) mating
partner and repel their rival males.
Interrupt

https://www.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ja/press/2015/08.html♂1♀
Interrupt (mate-guarding)♂2

Yokoi, S., Okuyama, T., Kamei, Y., Naruse, K., Taniguchi, Y., Ansai, S., ... & Takeuchi, H.
(2015). An Essential Role of the Arginine Vasotocin System in Mate-Guarding Behaviors in
Triadic Relationships of Medaka Fish (Oryzias latipes). PLoS Genet, 11(2), e1005009.

Yamanaka, O., & Takeuchi, R. (2018).
UMATracker: an intuitive image-based
tracking platform. Journal of Experimental
Biology, 221(16).

Users

Cited by 27 papers.
• N. Mizumoto, G. H. Gile, S. C. Pratt, Behavioral Rules for Soil Excavation
by Colony Founders and Workers in Termites, Annals of the
Entomological Society of America, 2020.
• N. Kanazawa, M. Goto, Y. Harada, C. Takimoto, Y. Sasaki, T. Uchikawa, Y.
Kamei, M. Matsuo, S. Fukamachi, Changes in a Cone Opsin RepertoireAﬀect Color-Dependent Social Behavior in Medaka but Not Behavioral
Photosensitivity, Frontiers in Genetics, 2020.
• G. Valentini, N. Mizumoto, S. C. Pratt, T. P. Pavlic, S. I. Walker, Revealing thestructure of information flows discriminates similar animal social
behaviors, eLife, 2020.
• C. K. Go, M. Ringhofer, B. Lao, T. Kubo, S. Yamamoto, K. Ikeda, Amathematical model of herding in horse-harem group, Journal ofEthology, 2020.
• T. Shinohara, Y. Takami, Functional diversity and trade-oﬀs in divergent
antipredator morphologies in herbivorous insects, Ecology andEvolution, 2020.

Conclusion
The user accomplished the task in about 15
minutes to extract position coordinates ofanimals in 2 minutes video.
• Our software provides useful user interfaces.
• The users employ our software in various experimentenvironments.