Participant Preparation

Marker

Before performing the experiments, the participants should be prepared with a marker. This can either be a colored hat / beanie (multicolor marker) alone or in combination with an individual marker (code marker). The multicolor marker is easy to prepare and works even with low resolution cameras. The code marker is minimally more work to prepare, but it will enable you to link individual information via a markerID to the participants and facilitate the tracking process. If the recording of individual information is wanted, it should be done through a questionnaire that participants fill out before the experiments (e.g. age, gender). The code marker should remain identical throughout the entire experiment in order to analyze individuals across experiments.

Important

To ensure that your experimental setup, including camera height and camera settings, enables you to detect markers, test your chosen setup in PeTrack beforehand. For this test of the recognition, no calibration is needed.

Clothing

Care must be taken to ensure that the clothing of the participants does not influence the recognition of markers or their elements. In particular, colors of markers should not appear in the clothing. Shirts can be provided if participants are nevertheless wearing unfavorable colors.

Height

The greater the difference in the height of the participants, the greater the occlusion, so that it may make sense to limit the participant acquisition to a specific height range. When the participants’ height (with shoes!) is measured, it can later be imported into PeTrack and improve the overall data accuracy.

Note

During the filming of the experiments, only the participating people should be inside the camera view. This is especially important for people wearing markers!