The virtual lover: variable and easily guided 3D fish animations as an innovative tool in mate-choice experiments with sailfin mollies-I. Design and implementation
The virtual lover: variable and easily guided 3D fish animations as an innovative tool in mate-choice experiments with sailfin mollies-I. Design and implementation
复制标题
虚拟情人：可变且易于引导的 3D 鱼动画作为帆鳍莫里斯-I 择偶实验的创新工具。
作者：
Klaus Müller;Ievgen Smielik;Jan;S. Gierszewski;K. Witte;K. Kuhnert
动物行为学研究者经常面临实验标准化和重复性的问题。这导致了人工虚拟刺激部分替代活的动物。除了标准化和可重复性之外，虚拟刺激还为研究人员提供了新的选择，因为它们在形态和外观上很容易改变，并且它们的行为可以定义。在这篇文章中，一个新的工具链进行行为实验与鱼类的案例研究，在帆鳍mollies花宽鳍。由于工具链具有许多不同和新颖的功能，它为行为动物研究提供了新的可能性，并促进了实验的标准化。所提出的方法包括选项设计，动画，并提出虚拟刺激活鱼。该设计工具提供了一种简单和用户友好的方式来定义刺激的大小，着色和形态，而且它能够在没有任何用户影响的情况下随机配置虚拟刺激。此外，工具链带来了一种新颖的方法，在游戏控制器的帮助下以半自动的方式动画刺激。这些创建的游泳路径可以应用于不同的刺激在真实的时间。演示工具结合了模型和游泳路径关于以前定义的播放列表，并提出了刺激到2个屏幕上。用仿真的帆鳍摩利鱼进行实验，验证了所建立的虚拟三维鱼模型在择偶实验中的有效性。
Abstract Animal behavior researchers often face problems regarding standardization and reproducibility of their experiments. This has led to the partial substitution of live animals with artificial virtual stimuli. In addition to standardization and reproducibility, virtual stimuli open new options for researchers since they are easily changeable in morphology and appearance, and their behavior can be defined. In this article, a novel toolchain to conduct behavior experiments with fish is presented by a case study in sailfin mollies Poecilia latipinna. As the toolchain holds many different and novel features, it offers new possibilities for studies in behavioral animal research and promotes the standardization of experiments. The presented method includes options to design, animate, and present virtual stimuli to live fish. The designing tool offers an easy and user-friendly way to define size, coloration, and morphology of stimuli and moreover it is able to configure virtual stimuli randomly without any user influence. Furthermore, the toolchain brings a novel method to animate stimuli in a semiautomatic way with the help of a game controller. These created swimming paths can be applied to different stimuli in real time. A presentation tool combines models and swimming paths regarding formerly defined playlists, and presents the stimuli onto 2 screens. Experiments with live sailfin mollies validated the usage of the created virtual 3D fish models in mate-choice experiments.