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ARS Home » Midwest Area » West Lafayette, Indiana » Livestock Behavior Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #90554
Title: A VIDEO DATABASE SYSTEM FOR STUDYING ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

Author
item Morrow, Julie
item Dailey, Jeffery
item JIANG, HAITAO - PURDUE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Journal of Animal Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/22/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: There are many text-books that describe animal behavior. These written descriptions of animal behavior do not convey the motion associated with most behaviors however. Video based guides offer a method of illustrating behavior that is dynamic in nature. We have developed such a behavior encyclopedia for farm animal behavior. The encyclopedia is currently available on the Internet at http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/USDA-LBRU/VBD/ VIDEO.HTM. The applications of this behavior enclyclopedia are to create an accessible data base for defining and illustrating behaviors for both research and teaching and to further automate collection of animal behavior data. This is currently the only video encyclopedia of farm behavior in the world.

Technical Abstract: Classification of farm animal behavior is based upon oral or written descriptions of the activity in which the animal is engaged. The quantification of animal behavior for research requires that individuals recognize and code the behavior of the animal under study. The classification of these behaviors can be subjective and may differ among observers. Illustrated guides to animal behavior do not convey the motion associated with most behaviors. Video based guides offer a method of quantifying behaviors with real time demonstrations of the components that make up a behavior. An animal behavior encyclopedia has been developed to allow searching and viewing of defined (video recorded) behaviors on the Internet. This video database is being developed to initiate a system that automatically extracts animal motion information from an input animal acitivity video clip using a multi-object tracking and reasoning system. Eventually the extracted information will be analyzed and described using set of standard animal behavior definitions (the behavior encyclopedia). The intended applications of the behavior encyclopedia and video tracking system are: 1) an accessible data base for defining and illustrating behaviors for both research and teaching and 2) to further automate collection of animal behavior data.