Monitoring animal behavior in the Smart VivariumS.J. BelongieUniversity of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USAIn the course of modern medical research, it is common for a research
facility to house thousands of caged mice, rats, rabbits, and other mammals
in rooms known as vivaria. In any experiment involving a group of animals
it is necessary to perform environmental and physiological monitoring
to determine the effects of the procedure and the health of the animals
involved. Such monitoring is currently performed by human observers, and
for practical reasons, only a small subset of cages can be inspected for
limited amounts of time. In this talk, I will outline the computer vision
and machine learning technology behind the Smart Vivarium, a system for
automated, continuous animal behavior monitoring. The Smart Vivarium will
serve as an invaluable tool for medical researchers as it will make better
use of fewer animals. Early discovery of sick animals will prevent diseases
from spreading, and in general will lead to more efficient caretaking
of animals. Additionally, the proposed technology can serve as a powerful
tool for monitoring sentinel cages in potential bioterrorism targets and
chemical agent research facilities. The Smart Vivarium project is a California
Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) collaboration
between the Jacobs School 's Computer Science & Engineering and Bioengineering
Departments and the UCSD Animal Care Program. Paper presented at Measuring Behavior 2005 , 5th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research, 30 August - 2 September 2005, Wageningen, The Netherlands. © 2005 Noldus Information Technology bv |