Animal motion-capture studio tracks bird flocks and insect swarms
Starlings perched in a motion-capture lab built inside a converted barnChristian Zeigler
An animal behaviour lab built inside a converted barn uses motion-capture cameras to track the movements and behaviours of entire flocks of birds or swarms of insects.
The so-called SMART-BARN resembles a Hollywood motion-capture studio with 30 infrared cameras capable of tracking up to 500 individual markers attached to animal’s bodies. All of this takes place within an area one quarter the size of a standard basketball court, and which can include feeding stations and animal perches.
“We have a very high precision and controllable environment, but with large enough volume for the animals to move and interact much as they do in nature”, says Máté Nagy at the Max Planck Institute o...