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Behavioural video filming

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Axel edited this page Nov 3, 2024 · 3 revisions

Behavioural video filming

This page describes how to setup video filming for behaviour and how to use the system when doing behavioural sessions.

Hardware and equipment 🎥 💡 🖥️

We use triggerable infrared The Imaging Source USB cameras, in particular the DMK 37BUX273. Other models with comparable specifications could also work. These cameras are compact, light, easy to use.

You also need IR LEDs e.g.:

We usually do video data acquisition on a separate PCs:

  • recent computer
  • USB 3.1 ports at the back of the computer
  • one or several SSDs

We acquire on dedicated SSD drives (that are not the system C:\ drive):

  • sufficient SSD storage e.g. 4Tb or higher to hold all of your day's data
  • SATA III or better (NVMe M.2)
  • SSD write speed higher than the data stream requirements for a specific combination of: number of cameras X color format #bits X image size X frame rate, etc.
  • several SSDs can be used in parallel

Note: ⚠️ Sometimes we lose frames, i.e. some frames are not saved in the .avi file even though a trigger was sent and an exposure time was received, suggesting that either a component of the system cannot keep up. This seems to be PC-dependent: some PCs work, others don't. The specific reasons for that are still unknown. The detailed PC specifications may matter for this. Lowering the frame rate showed that frame loss can be avoided altogether.

Setup

  • Setup 2 cameras on your setup: for side and top views of the mouse face. However, this depends on your specific project. 😄
  • Install IC Capture on the PC.
  • Install the drivers for your camera models (here for DMK 37BUX273) under the camera's webpage -> Downloads -> Device Drivers.
  • Launch IC Capture.
  • File -> New -> Select Device
  • Set up our video acquisition settings:
    • Color format: Y800 (640x480)
    • Binning: 2x (improves SNR luminance)
    • Input: NA
    • FPS: 200.00
    • Format: AVI
    • Codec: Y800 (uncompressed)
    • Video file: choose target SSD directory, MouseName_<view> as filename prefix, without index, with time stamp (either option), where view is {side, top} or {sideview, topview}
    • Exposure: 1/500sec (2ms)
    • Leave all other brightness/sharpness/etc. parameters untouched -> adjust brightness conditions with collimation/LED drivers directly
  • Repeat for other cameras
  • Save configuration on desktop: File -> Save Configuration

You can then either load the saved .iccf configuration file from Desktop or leave the software open if you are continuously recording videos.

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