Tracking the Body, Wing, and Leg Kinematics of Moving Mosquitoes
- 1Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA
- 2Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA
- 3Experimental Zoology Group, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, the Netherlands
- ↵4Correspondence: thedrick{at}bio.unc.edu
Abstract
In this protocol, we discuss general techniques for tracking the three-dimensional (3D) locations of the mosquito body, wings, legs, or other features of interest using videos. Tracking data must be acquired to produce detailed kinematics of moving mosquitoes. The software of focus for this protocol, DLTdv, was chosen for its widespread use and excellent support and because it is open-source. In addition, DLTdv allows both manual and automatic tracking. The automatic tracking can be done using a classic machine vision or machine-learning algorithm. The software supports both single-camera analysis and multicamera systems and can take advantage of sophisticated calibration algorithms, both for intrinsic lens distortion correction and for 3D DLT-based reconstruction. For this protocol, we assume all kinematic data is acquired post hoc through video analysis.
Footnotes
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From the Mosquitoes collection, edited by Laura B. Duvall and Benjamin J. Matthews.
