Knowledge Base

Data Management

Supported Data Types

• Signals sampled at a constant rate (with equidistant time stamps)
• Signals sampled at a non-constant rate (with non-equidistant time stamps)
• Physiological data stored in ASCII or EDF format
• Ultrasonic vocalization data recorded with UltraVox

Edit Data

In the Track Editor the stored video file can be used to evaluate the tracking result. This allows you to quickly and easily find wrong data points and correct them. EthoVision will find samples that match a specific criterion, for instance to find missing points or samples that are separated by a distance greater or smaller than a specific value.

Furthermore, points can be deleted, moved to another position or interpolated. It can be used to swap subjects in case these were assigned incorrectly, or correct the nose-point and tail-base if they were swapped. You can save a copy of the track with the edits, and the original track data also stays stored.

• Time Bins – Time intervals of constant duration that you can define to analyze data as if the tracks were split into segments. (Length can vary between 1 second and 24 hours.)
• Results Per Zone – An easy way to calculate the results of individual analysis parameters per zone.

Smooth Tracks

Small (erratic) movements, such as body wobbles or outliers, may lead to an overestimation of certain parameters.

• The Lowess Filtering method essentially smooths the acquired tracks of the body center point.
• Minimal Distance Moved smoothing allows you to specify the minimal distance moved between samples that is taken into account as actual movement, excluding micro movements.
• Maximal Distance Moved removes outliers.

Select Data

EthoVision offers four methods for data selection or separation:

• Filtering – Picking out entire tracks, based on the value of system variables, user-defined variables, or the presence of co-acquired external data.
• Nesting – Picking out parts of tracks, according to the zone the animal was in, the behavioral state the animal was in, or during a certain time interval.

Visualize Data

You can plot all the selected tracks, or partial tracks, in one matrix. In this view you can sort rows and columns according to one or more independent variables. You can also visualize integrated data: the video, the animal's track, and the values of the selected parameters in one dynamic, synchronized view.

With the built-in screen recording tool you can make a screen recording of either full screen or the tracks and plots area of the integrated visualization.

All output variables can be presented in tables and graphs. You can customize the layout of the statistics results table, making data export to other applications easier. You can view the results per trial or for groups, such as treatment groups.

You can also visualize your data in heatmaps. For this you can select data and variables of interest, and present heatmaps per individual or group. High quality export options with min-max scale allow for use in publications.

Source: EthoVision XT 19 Technical Specifications - Fish, Noldus Information Technology