Quadruped locomotion analysis using three-dimensional video

Abstract

To date, there has not been a single method suitable for large-scale or regular-basis implementation to analyze the locomotion of quadruped animals. Existing methods are not sensitive enough for detecting minor deviations from healthy gaits. That is important because these minor deviations could develop into a severe painful lameness condition. We introduce a dynamic novel proxy for early stage lameness by analyzing the height movements from an overhead-view 3D video data. These movements are derived from key regions (e.g. spine, hook joints, and sacroiliac joint). The features to these key regions are automatically tracked using shape index and curvedness threshold from the 3D map. Our system is fully automated, covert and non-intrusive. This directly affects the accuracy of the analysis as we are able to observe the animals without spooking them. We believe that our proposed method could be used on other animals, i.e. predator quadrupeds where human presence is difficult.