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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 11, 2026

Tracking Rats in Operant Conditioning Chambers Using a Versatile Homemade Video Camera and DeepLabCut
08:32

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ManuTrace: An HTML-Based Interface for Manually Extracting Movement Trajectory Data From a Video.

Kiyotaka Yabe1,2, Yuna Tosaka1,2, Kenji Matsuura1

  • 1Laboratory of Insect Ecology, Graduate School of Agriculture Kyoto University Kyoto Japan.

Ecology and Evolution
|June 10, 2026
PubMed
Summary

ManuTrace is a simple, portable HTML tool for manual animal movement tracking from videos. It bypasses complex setup, enabling rapid trajectory data extraction for exploratory analysis and education.

Keywords:
animal movementbehavioral ecologysoftwaretrackingtrajectory extractionvideo analysis

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Last Updated: Jun 11, 2026

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Area of Science:

  • Ethology and Ecology
  • Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

Background:

  • Animal movement tracking is crucial for understanding behavior and ecology.
  • Automated video analysis tools for movement tracking often require extensive setup and parameter tuning.
  • High setup costs create a barrier for exploratory or opportunistic video analyses.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Introduce ManuTrace, a user-friendly HTML interface for manual trajectory data extraction from videos.
  • Provide a simple, portable alternative to complex automated tracking software for rapid data acquisition.
  • Demonstrate ManuTrace's effectiveness across different recording conditions.

Main Methods:

  • ManuTrace utilizes an interactive HTML interface for video playback and manual coordinate recording.
  • Object positions are recorded via mouse clicks, with intermediate frames automatically interpolated.
  • Extracted trajectory data is exported as CSV files for downstream analysis.

Main Results:

  • ManuTrace enabled consistent trajectory extraction across various recording conditions, unlike automated tools with variable accuracy.
  • A 1800-frame video with 12 termite individuals was processed within 20 minutes, yielding 21,600 coordinates.
  • The software runs in any modern web browser as a single HTML file, requiring no installation.

Conclusions:

  • ManuTrace offers a simple, portable, and efficient solution for manual trajectory analysis, complementing automated methods.
  • It serves as an accessible entry point for trajectory analysis and is valuable for educational purposes.
  • The tool effectively overcomes setup barriers associated with automated tracking for pilot studies.