Collaborative Proposal: EAGER: Towards Real-time, High throughput Insect Behavior Analysis

该项目将开发一种有效的方法来分析从视频中收集的大量动物行为数据。动物行为研究往往受到观察动物活动并从中提取定量信息所需的大量时间投资的限制。自动化这一过程，换句话说，使计算机系统能够从动物行为的视频中提取相关信息，将为此类研究节省大量时间。不仅如此，一个允许实时分析的系统还可以让研究人员在中途改变实验，因为对被观察个体行为的测量将立即可用。这将允许一个新的控制水平，并使全新的实验方法成为可能。将开发一种工具，通过融合复杂的图像分析软件和功能强大、快速发展的图形处理器(GPU)硬件技术，在台式PC上实现对昆虫行为的高通量、实时分析。该工具价格实惠(约1万美元/台)，易于维护(这是一台PC)，同时提供对昆虫行为的实时、自动化分析，将吞吐量提高高达400倍。蚁群是我们将验证该工具的模式生物之一，它特别适合在扩展中展示生物系统的复杂性和复杂性。此外，还将通过该项目为研究生提供跨学科培训。跨学科研究，特别是计算机科学-生物交互是未来的趋势，这种类型的项目将成为学生的一种很好的培训机制。最重要的是，开发的工具将通过项目网站提供软件下载的方式传播给其他研究人员。

This project will develop an efficient method of analyzing a large quantity of animal behavior data collected in video. Animal behavior research is often limited by the large time investments needed to observe animal activities and extract quantitative information from this. Automating this process, in other words enabling a computer system to extract relevant information from videos of animal behavior, would result in radical time-saving for such studies. Not only that, but a system that would allow real-time analysis could enable researchers to change experiments mid-stream, as measurements of the behavior of observed individuals would become available immediately. This will allow a new level of control, and enable totally new experimental approaches. A tool will be developed to enable high-throughput, real-time analysis of insect behavior on a Desktop PC by fusing sophisticated image analysis software and powerful, rapidly developing Graphical Processor Unit (GPU) hardware technology. The tool will be affordable (about $10k/unit), easy-to-maintain (it's a PC) while providing a real-time, automated analysis of insect behavior increasing the throughput by up to 400 times. Ant colonies, one of the model organisms for which we will validate the tool, are uniquely suitable to demonstrate both sophistication and complexity of biological systems in outreach. In addition, graduate students will be provided interdisciplinary training through the project. Interdisciplinary research, in particular computer science-biology interactions, is the future, and this type of project will serve as a great training mechanism for the students. Most importantly, the developed tool will be disseminated to other researchers by making the software available for download through the project website.