CoMo: A Novel Comoving 3D Camera System

Abstract

Motivated by the theoretical interest in reconstructing long 3D trajectories of individual birds in large flocks, we developed CoMo, a co-moving camera system of two synchronized cameras coupled with rotational stages, which allow us to dynamically follow the motion of a target flock. With the rotation of the cameras we overcome the limitations of standard static systems that restrict the duration of the collected data to the short interval of time in which targets are in the cameras common field of view, but at the same time we change in time the external parameters of the system, which have then to be calibrated frame-by-frame. We address the calibration of the external parameters measuring the position of the cameras and their three angles of yaw, pitch and roll in the system home configuration (rotational stage at an angle equal to 0 • ) and combining this static information with the time dependent rotation due to the stages. We evaluate the robustness and accuracy of the system by comparing reconstructed and measured 3D distances in what we call 3D tests, which show a relative error of the order of 1%. The novelty of the work presented in this paper is not only on the system itself, but also on the approach we use in the tests, which we show to be a very powerful tool in detecting and fixing calibration inaccuracies and that, for this reason, may be relevant for a broad audience.

Tuning Collective Behaviour in Zebrafish with Genetic Modification

“…However, performing such an experiment with a large group of mutant fish is challenging, as mutants display a relatively high mortality rate. In addition, tracking larger groups requires better camera systems (see [65] for example), more optimised algorithms (see [66,67] for examples), and a very large space to avoid the interruption from the boundary. These requirements are beyond our current experimental capability.…”