You can upload videos to your account for both automated activity tracking and manual behavior scoring.
The BehaviorCloud Camera app is still a great way to run live trials by directly streaming video into your account without an expensive camera or software license, but we know that sometimes you may want to upload video you’ve already recorded elsewhere to store or analyze. For those times, we have introduced a new feature so you can upload videos, calibrate distance manually, and quickly generate analyzed data. Here’s how it works:
When you create an experiment, choose the option to upload video instead of running a live test. Upload video files in any common format, like .mp4.
If you want to run video tracking to automatically track activity in a maze or home cage, then you’ll need to manually calibrate distance. Use the tool to draw a line of known length and enter the distance in centimeters. BehaviorCloud will automatically scale your data so you can generate variables like distance traveled and velocity.
You’ll also need to set two timestamps for each video file. First, set a timestamp for the background image when the arena is clear. Second, set a timestamp for when the animal is inserted and tracking should begin. After those quick steps you can proceed with generating position and activity data as usual.
If you want to manually score behavior, again select the option for video upload when creating an experiment. You’ll need to set a timestamp on each video for when observation should begin. From there you can play back videos and score behavior as usual.
If you have large video files or HD video, it’s possible that uploading your videos will take some time. In that case, we recommend reducing the file size using a video compression tool. If you don’t have a video compressor, you can find many options available online.
We hope you find the new video upload feature useful for your research. Check it out today by creating a free BehaviorCloud account!