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Regions of Interest (ROIs) in SimBA

The SimBA region of interest (ROI) interface allows users to define and draw ROIs on videos. ROI data can be used to calculate basic descriptive statistics based on animals movements and locations such as:

  • How much time the animals have spent in different ROIs.
  • How many times the animals have entered different ROIs.
  • The distance animals have moved in the different ROIs.
  • Calculate how animals have engaged in different classified behaviors in each ROI. etc....

Furthermore, the ROI data can be used to build potentially valuable, additional, features for random forest predictive classifiers. Such features can be used to generate a machine model that classify behaviors that depend on the spatial location of body parts in relation to the ROIs. CAUTION: If spatial locations are irrelevant for the behaviour being classified, then such features should not be included in the machine model generation as they just only introduce noise.

Before analyzing ROIs in SimBA

To analyze ROI data in SimBA (for descriptive statistics, machine learning features, or both descriptive statistics and machine learning features) the tracking data first has to be processed the up-to and including the Outlier correction step described in Part 2 - Step 4 - Correcting outliers. Thus, before proceeding to calculate ROI based measures, you should have one CSV file for each of the videos in your project located within the project_folder\csv\outlier_corrected_movement_location sub-directory of your SimBA project.

Specifically, for working with ROIs in SimBA, begin by (i) Importing your videos to your project, (ii) Import the tracking data and relevant videos to your project, (iii) Set the video parameters, and lastly (iv) Correct outliers (or click to indicate that you want to Skip outlier correction as detailed in the Correct outliers tutorial)

A short explanation on what is meant by "using ROI data as features for random forest classifiers" When ROIs have been drawn in SimBA, then we can calculate several metrics that goes beyond the coordinates of the different body-parts from pose-estimation. For example - for each frame of the video - we can calculate the distance between the different body-parts and the different ROIs, or if the animal is inside or outside the ROIs. In some instances (depending on which body parts are tracked), we can also calculate if the animal is directing towards the ROIs (see below for more information). These measures can be used to calculate several further features such as the percentage of the session, up to and including the any frame, the animal has spent within a specific ROI. These and other ROI-based features could be useful additions for classifying behaviors in certain scenarios.

Part 1. Defining ROIs in SimBA

  1. In the main SimBA console window, begin loading your project by clicking on File and Load project. In the [Load Project] tab, click on Browse File and select the project_config.ini that belongs to your project.

  2. Navigate to the ROI tab, which should look like the image below (we will be using the menu highted by the red rectangle):

  1. Next, click on the Define ROIs button, and the following table will pop open.

Note: If you have ROIs on some or all the videos in your project, and want to delete your work and start from scratch, use the Delete all ROIs button. More info at the end of this tutorial.

This table contain one row for each of the videos in the project. Each video in the project has three buttons associated with it: Draw, Reset, and Apply to all. The functions associated with each button is described in detail below. In brief:

  • The Draw button allows you to start to draw ROI shapes on the specific video. If drawings already exist for the specific video, then the Draw buttons opens an interface where you can move, re-define, or add ROI shapes on the video.

  • The Reset button deletes any ROIs made on the specific video and allows you to restart the ROI drawings from scratch by next clicking on the Draw button.

  • The Apply to all buttons copies the ROI drawing made on the specific video and replicates it on all other videos in the project. If a drawing has been applied to all videos videos in the project by clicking on the Apply to all button, then the shapes for any specific video can be moved or re-defined (and new ROI shapes can be added) by clicking on the Draw button.

  1. To begin to draw your ROI shapes, click on the Draw button for the first video in the table. Once clicked, two windows will pop up that look like this:

The left window (titled Define shape) will display the first frame of the video. The right window (titled Region of Interest Settings) will contain information, buttons and entry-boxes for creating and manpulating your ROI shapes, and we will go through their function in detail below.

Note: The aesthetics of the menus might look slightly different on your computer (this tutorial was written using MacOS). The functions however are the same regardless of operating system.

The "Region of Interest Settings" menu

Video Information

The first part of the "Region of Interest Settings" menu is titled Video Information and is useful for general troubleshooting. This menu displays the name of the current video, the format of the video, its frame rate, and the frame number and the timestamp of the frame that is being displayed in the left window.

Change image

Occationally, the first frame of the video isn't suitable for defining your ROIs and you'd like to use a different frame while drawing. Alternatively, you might want to check how your ROIs look in a different frame of the video. To manipulate the frame being displayed, us the buttons in the Change image menu (see gif below):

  • Click on +1s to display a frame one second later in the video than the frame currently being displayed.

  • Conversely, clicking on -1s will display a frame one second earlier in the video than the frame currently displayed.

  • If you need move a custom distance forward in the video, then enter the number of seconds you want to move forward in the Seconds forward entry box, and then click on the Move button.

  • If you want to display the first frame of the video, click on the Reset first frame button.

New shape

The next menu is used to create new ROI shapes and contains three sub-menus (Shape type, Shape attributes, and Shape name)

Shape type

To begin creating a new ROI, start by selecting its type. SimBA supports three shape types - rectangles, circles, and polygons. Select the shape type you want to draw by clicking the appropriate button.

Shape attributes

Next, once you have selected the Shape type, you can pick a few of its attributes (or go ahead with the default values). Users drawing ROIs in SimBA are often working in a wide variety of video and monitor resolutions and are sometimes drawing relatively complex geometries involving many shapes. The options in this menu can help make shapes visible, distinguable and aligned while drawing. SimBA allowes the user to set three different shape attributes (if you want to change these attributes later, after drawing your ROI shape, you can - more info below):

  • Shape thickness: This dropdown menu controls the thickness of the lines in the ROIs (see the top of the image below). If you select a higher value in the Shape thickness dropdown menu, then the lines of your ROI will be thicker.

  • Ear tag size: Each shape that you draw will have ear tags (more info below). These tags can be clicked on to move shapes, align shapes, or manipulate the dimensions of the shapes. In this dropdown menu, select the size that the ear-tags of your ROI should have (see the bottom of the image below). If you select a higher value in the Ear tag size dropdown, then the ear-tags of the ROI will be bigger.

  • Shape color: Each shape that you draw will have a color. From the dropdown, select the color that your ROI should have.

Shape name

Each shape in SimBA has a name. In this menu, enter the name of your shape as a string (e.g., bottom left corner, or center etc..).

Draw shape

Once you have defined your shape attributes, it is time to draw it. The methods for drawing the three different shape types (Rectangle, Circle and Polygon) is slightly different from each other and detailed below. However, regardless of the shape type you are currently drawing, begin by clicking on Draw.

Rectangle

To draw a rectangle, click and hold the left mouse button at the top left corner of your rectangle and drag the mouse to the bottom right corner of the rectangle. If you're unhappy with your rectangle, start to draw the rectangle again by holding the left mouse button at the top left corner of your, new, revised, rectangle. The previous rectangle will be automatically discarded. When you are happy with your rectangle, press the keyboard ESC button to save your rectangle.

Note: The rectangle will remain blue while you drawing it. After you hit ESC, the rectangle will take the color you picked in the Shape color attribute dropdown menu above.

Circle

Begin by left mouse clicking on the image where you would like the center of the circle to be. You should see a small filled circle appear where you clicked, with the color selected in the Shape color attribute dropdown menu. This circle marks the center location of your circle. Next, left click on the image where you would like the outer bound of the circle to be. You should now see your entire circle ROI.

Polygon

Left mouse click on at least three different locations in the image that defines the outer bounds of your polygon. You should see a small filled circle appear where you clicked, marking the locations of the polygons outer bounds. When you are happy with your polygons outer bounds, press the keyboard ESC button to save your polygon. After you press keyboard ESC button, the polygon with its connecting lines should appear.

Shape manipulations

SimBA allows several forms of shape manipulations that are described in detail below, this includes:

  • Deleting ROIs - allows you to delete all ROIs, or single user-defined ROIs.

  • Duplicating ROIs - allows you to duplicate already-drawn ROIs.

  • Change ROI location - allows you to move ROIs to different locations.

  • Change the shape of ROIs - allows you to change the width and/or hight of a rectangle, radius of a circle, or the locations of the outer bounds of a polygon.

  • Aligning ROIs - allows you to move ROIs while ensuring that they are completely aligned with other ROIs in the image.

  • Change ROI attributes - allows you to change the name, color or other attributes of an already created ROI.

Deleting ROIs

  • To delete all drawn ROIs, click on Delete ALL in the Draw sub-menu.

  • To delete a specific ROI, first use the Select ROI dropdown menu in the Draw sub-menu to select the ROI you wish to delete. Next, click on the Delete ROI button.

Duplicating ROIs

  1. To duplicate an already-draw ROI, first use the Select ROI dropdown menu in the Draw sub-menu to select the ROI you wish to duplicate. Next, click on the Duplicate ROI button. A new ROI, with the same dimensions and attributes as the ROI selected in the Select ROI dropdown menu, should appear in the frame near the original ROI.

  1. The first duplicated ROI will inherit the name of the original ROI with _copy_1 appended (... the second duplicated ROI will inherit the name of the original ROI with _copy_2 appended etc. Thus, if you look in the Select ROI dropdown menu, you should see a new ROI with a name in this format: My selected shape: MyShapeName_copy_1. To change this name, and/or other attribute belonging to this ROI, see the Change ROI attributes below.

Changing ROI locations

  1. To change the location of an ROI, begin by clicking the Move shape button in the Interaction sub-menu. Once clicked, the ear tags of each shape will be displayed in the left Define shape frame window. Rectangles will have 9 ear tags, circles have 2 ear-tags, and polygons have as many ear-tags as there are user-defined outer bounds (plus a center ear tag).

  2. Next, left mouse click on the center ear tag of the ROI you wish to move. You should see the entire ROI shape changing its color to grey marking that it has been selected.

  3. Next, left mouse click at the new location the where you want your ROI to be located. Once complete, you should see your ROI being displayed in the new location. If you want to move a second ROI shape, go ahead and click on Move shape again before clicking on the center tag of the second ROI shape.

Changing the shape of the ROI

  1. To change the shape of an ROI, begin by clicking the Move shape button in the Interaction sub-menu. Once clicked, the ear tags of each shape will be displayed in the frame window. Again, rectangles will have 9 ear tags, circles have 2 ear-tags, and polygons have as many ear-tags as there are user-defined outer bounds (plus a center ear tag).

  2. Next, left mouse-click on the ear-tag you wish to use to manipulate the ROI. Once you left click on the ear-tag, the part of the ROI shape you are manipulating should change its color to grey. Different ROI ear-tags will help you to manipulate different parts of the ROI. For example:

    Rectangles:

    • Clicking on the left middle ear-tag of a rectangle allows you to control the location of the left border or the rectangle.

    • Clicking on the top-left corner ear-tag of a rectangle allows you to control the top border and left border of the rectangle.

    • Clicking on the bottom middle ear-tag of a rectangle allows you to control the bottom border or the rectangle.

    Circles:

    • Clicking on the left border ear-tag of a circle allows you to control the radius of the circle.

    Polygon:

    • Clicking on any of the outer bounds of the polygon allows you to control the location of the outer bound in the polygon (i.e., control the two lines connected to the clicked-on ear-tag).

  3. After selecting an ear-tag, left mouse-click at the location where you want the parts you are manipulating to be located. Once you have clicked on the new location, the new ROI shape should be displayed.

Aligning ROIs

  1. To align two ROIs, begin by clicking the Move shape button in the Interaction sub-menu. Once clicked, the ear tags of each shape will be displayed in the frame window. Again, rectangles will have 9 ear tags, circles have 2 ear-tags, and polygons have as many ear-tags as there are user-defined outer bounds (plus a center ear tag).

  2. Next, left mouse-click on the ear-tag you wish to move and make in-alignment with another ROIs ear-tag. Once you left-click on the ear-tag, a successful selection will be highlighted by the ear-tag and its connected lines turning grey.

  3. Next, left mouse-click on the ear-tag of a second ROI representing the line with which you want to align the ROI you selected in Step 2 above.

Note: If you are aligning a Rectangle or Circle with a second ROI, then the entire shape will move and the coordinates of the ear-tag selected in Step 2 will inherit the same coordinates as the ear-tag selected in Step 3. If you are aligning a Polygon with a second ROI, then only the the ear-tag selected in Step 2 will move and inherit the same coordinates as the ear-tag selected in Step 3. If you want to align several edges a polygon with edges in a second ROI, proceed to repeat Step 2 and Step 3 for those additional edges.

Change ROI attributes

  1. To change the attributes of an already-created ROI, begin by selecting the ROI which attributes you want to change in the Select ROI drop-down menu. Next, click on Change ROI and a new menu window should pop open.

  2. To change the ROI name, enter a new name in the Shape name entry box. To change the ROI shape thickness, ear-tag size, or shape color, use the associated dropdown menus. Once done, click on Save. Your ROI with new attributes should show in the left frame and the Change ROI attributes menu is closed.

Apply shapes from another video

Sometimes we have created ROIs in one video, saved them, and opened up a second video to start drawing new ROIs on this second video. Now we may want to replicate the ROIs on the first video on the second video, and we can do this with the Apply shapes from another video sub-menu.

  1. To duplicate the ROI shapes already defined in a different video on the current video, navigate to the Select video dropdown menu in the Apply shapes from another video menu. This dropdown menu will show the videos in your SimBA project that has defined ROIs.

  2. In this dropdown menu, select the video which has the ROIs you wish to replicate. Once selected, click Apply. The ROIs from the video in the Select video dropdown menu will appear on the frame.

Show shape size information.

Sometimes we need some metrics representing the sizes of the ROIs we have drawn. We can display this by clicking on the Show shape info. button located to the right in the Shape interaction submenu.

  1. By clicking the Show shape info. button, some numbers are displayed inside our ROIs:

(i). Three numbers are displayed inside each of your drawn rectangles, representing the length, width and area of the rectangle

(ii) One number is displayed inside each of your drawn circles, representing the area of your circle.

(iii) One number is displayed inside each of your drawn polygons, representing the area of your polygon.

  1. When you have clicked the ``Show shape info.button, the text of the button toggles toHide shape info.` Click the button again to hide the shape information.

  2. The font in which the ROI size information is printed on the image might be grainy, too big, or too small, depending on your video resolution. If that is the case, navigate to the Preference menu and correct the Font size and Font thickness to make the font larger or smaller, as in the last half of the gif below.

Delete all ROI definitions in your SimBA project

Somtimes we may want to delete all ROI definitions in a SimBA project and start from scratch.

  1. To delete all the ROI definitions in the SimBA projects, click on the Delete all ROI definitions under the [ROI] tab in the load project menu, and the following menu should pop open:

  1. Click Yes to delete all ROI definitions in a SimBA project.

Next steps

Once your ROI definitions are all defined, close the ROI table, Regions of Interest Settings and Define Shape windows and head back to the [ROI] tab in the load project menu.

  • If you want to analyze descriptive statistics of movements in relation to your defined ROIs, use the Analyze ROI data button as detailed in Step 2 in THIS TUTORIAL.

  • If you want to create machine learning features using your ROI definitions, use the Append ROI data to features in the Extract features tab as detailed in THIS TUTORIAL

If you have any questions, bug reports or feature requests, please let us know by opening a new github issue or contact us through gitter!

Author Simon N