Journal article
Through hawks’ eyes: synthetically reconstructing the visual field of a bird in flight
- Abstract:
- Birds of prey rely on vision to execute flight manoeuvres that are key to their survival, such as intercepting fast-moving targets or navigating through clutter. A better understanding of the role played by vision during these manoeuvres is not only relevant within the field of animal behaviour, but could also have applications for autonomous drones. In this paper, we present a novel method that uses computer vision tools to analyse the role of active vision in bird flight, and demonstrate its use to answer behavioural questions. Combining motion capture data from Harris’ hawks with a hybrid 3D model of the environment, we render RGB images, semantic maps, depth information and optic flow outputs that characterise the visual experience of the bird in flight. In contrast with previous approaches, our method allows us to consider different camera models and alternative gaze strategies for the purposes of hypothesis testing, allows us to consider visual input over the complete visual field of the bird, and is not limited by the technical specifications and performance of a head-mounted camera light enough to attach to a bird’s head in flight. We present pilot data from three sample flights: a pursuit flight, in which a hawk intercepts a moving target, and two obstacle avoidance flights. With this approach, we provide a reproducible method that facilitates the collection of large volumes of data across many individuals, opening up new avenues for data-driven models of animal behaviour.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 22.5MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1007/s11263-022-01733-2
Authors
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Journal:
- International Journal of Computer Vision More from this journal
- Volume:
- 131
- Pages:
- 1497-1531
- Publication date:
- 2023-03-02
- Acceptance date:
- 2022-12-05
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1573-1405
- ISSN:
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0920-5691
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1315382
- Local pid:
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pubs:1315382
- Deposit date:
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2022-12-16
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Miñano et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2023
- Rights statement:
- Copyright © 2023, The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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