Issue 1, March 2005

Vemco Collaborates with Baird on Bio-Tracking Projects

Baird & Associates' software is recognized internationally as a leading geo-spatial scientific data visualization and animation application. The combination of Baird and Vemco capabilities has resulted in an excellent working relationship with an exceptional understanding of the requirements for specialized bio-tracking projects. This collaboration enables the creation of interesting and accurate 2D and 3D animations which are a significant advantage when trying to understand data and to convey the results clearly and concisely in public forums.

Baird's technology, which includes XVision, SDA and Baird Animator, provides scientific model analysis and animation tools that allow the user to easily render and review large data sets and numerical model results in a virtual reality world. Although Baird has been using these tools for years in their work as coastal engineers, their application for tracking the movement patterns of animals is extremely exciting and proven to be a very unique capability.

What's Involved
The data files that comprise Vemco's database are imported into the SDA internal database. This import procedure catalogues each of the tag numbers as a different "run" in the database. The import procedure also requires a number of other "helper" files such as a water level time series for the period of study, a grid representing the bathymetry in the area, a file providing the position of the receivers, and other project specific data.

The path connecting the temporal positions of an animal is drawn as either a series of line segments, or a smooth curve through the data. Further positioning may be done at this time based upon obvious physical obstructions or knowledge of the animal's physical abilities such as swimming speed, and environmental factors such as current speed. The path may then be re-sampled at regular time increments if further analysis or animation is desired. Tracks can be viewed individually or as selected groups. Vital statistics such as the speed of motion, salinity, temperature, current speed and others are easily analyzed or exported as charts or graphs.

Along with the tracking data, the database supports measured and modeled three-dimensional environment data and provides the opportunity to view the tracks against the time synchronized environment variables. Baird has the capabilities to collect and produce numerical simulations of this environmental data including Bathymetric data, GIS Mapping, Hydro-dynamic models, Soil testing, water/air temperature, salinity, current meter readings, ADCP measurements, pollution levels and particle tracks. This specialized expertise is an essential element in developing the relationship between the environment and movement patterns of marine species.

Output from the bio-tracking system typically consists of results files for each animal that brings together all the tracking and environmental data into one concise time related history. This information may be easily exported to standardized formats, such as GIS shape files, tables, text, etc., for use with other applications. By visually representing such data, the software allows the user to efficiently recognize and edit errors that may have otherwise been overlooked, and through spatial representation, greatly enhances the understanding of the data to technical and non-technical personnel alike.

Example Projects
See the Baird Bio-Tracking Page for more information on capabilities and descriptions of sample implementations. See also the Animation Gallery which shows some representative results obtained from projects using VEMCO equipment.