The bugsystem: The software structure for the reduction of quantized video data of moving organisms

The description of an interactive interpretive on-line computer-television system for studying the behavior of organisms is presented. The movements of organisms in a wet-slide preparation is recorded on video tape with the aid of a microscope and rendered to a computer in outline form by a video-to-digital processor. Parameters relating to the behavior of the organisms, such as velocity and rate of change of direction, are extracted with an interactive graphics system. The objective of the system is to provide the human operator a set of both high-level and primitive keyboard operations which, in conjunction with the graphics terminal, provide the tools for the successful acquisition, analysis, and display of these behavioral data.