Abstract
We describe an inexpensive means of digitizing videotaped positions of moving points, such as the positions of the joints of a person who is performing an action. Single-frame video images and a Macintosh computer monitor are optically superimposed, using a half-silvered mirror, and the positions of reference points in the video image are manually clicked in by the operator, so that the screen coordinates of the reference points on each frame can be stored in a text file for later analysis. The digitizing program records comments and identifying information along with the position data.
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This project was supported by the Faculty Research Support Fund at Hamilton College, a National Science Foundation Research Opportunity Award to David A. Rosenbaum and Jonathan Vaughan, and National Science Foundation Grant BNS-8710933 and a Research Career Development award from the National Institute for Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke to David A. Rosenbaum. The authors thank Rachel Clifton and André Bullinger for suggesting the use of the half-silvered mirror for this task. A copy of the digitizing program will be provided on receipt of a blank Macintosh disk.
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Barnes, H.J., Vaughan, J., Jorgensen, M.J. et al. A low-cost method for digitizing videotaped continuous movements on the Macintosh. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers 21, 255–258 (1989). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03205591
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03205591