The authors thank Dr. Chen Yu for his guidance in the creation of this manuscript and for the data used in the Representative Results section. We thank the participating families that agreed to be used in the figures and filming of the protocol as well as Lydia Hoffstaetter for her careful reading of this manuscript. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health grants T32HD007475-22 (J.I.B., D.H.A.), R01 HD074601 (S.B.), R01 HD028675 (S.B., L.B.S.), and F32HD093280 (L.K.S.). National Science Foundation grants BCS-1523982 (S.B., L.B.S) and CAREER IIS-1253549 (S.B., D.J.C.), the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program #1342962 (S.E.S.), and by Indiana University through the Emerging Area of Research Initiative - Learning: Brains, Machines, and Children (J.I.B., S.B., L.B.S.).

The following procedure to collect data on infant and toddler&#8217;s visual experiences in the laboratory and at home was approved by the Indiana University Institutional Review Board. Informed consent was obtained from the infant&#8217;s caregiver.
1. Choose a Head Camera
NOTE: There are numerous small, lightweight, and portable cameras readily available for purchase (Figure 2).
<ol>
	<li>Choose a head camera that i...

<ol>
	<li>James, W. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> The Principles of Psychology. , (1890).</li><li>Quine, W., Van, O. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> Word and object: An inquiry into the linguistic mechanisms of objective reference. , (1960).</li><li>Yoshida, H., Smith, L. B. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=What's+in+view+for+toddlers?+Using+a+head+camera+to+study+visual+experience.">What's in view for toddlers? Using a head camera to study visual experience.</a> Infancy. 13 (3), 229-248 (2008).</li><li>Yu, C., Smith, L. B. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Embodied+attention+and+word+learning+by+toddlers.">Embodied attention and word learning by toddlers.</a> Cognition. 125 (2), 244-262 (2012).</li><li>Bambach, S., Smith, L. B., Crandall, D. J., Yu, C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Objects+in+the+center:+How+the+infant's+body+constrains+infant+scenes.">Objects in the center: How the infant's body constrains infant scenes.</a> Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and Epigenetic Robotics 2016. , 132-137 (2016).</li><li>Adolph, K. E., Gilmore, R. O., Freeman, C., Sanderson, P., Millman, D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Toward+open+behavioral+science.">Toward open behavioral science.</a> Psychological Inquiry. 23 (3), 244-247 (2012).</li><li>Sanderson, P. M., Scott, J. J. P., Johnston, T., Mainzer, J., Wantanbe, L. M., James, J. M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=MacSHAPA+and+the+enterprise+of+exploratory+sequential+data+analysis+(ESDA).">MacSHAPA and the enterprise of exploratory sequential data analysis (ESDA).</a> International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. 41 (5), 633-681 (1994).</li><li>Pereira, A. F., Smith, L. B., Yu, C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=A+bottom-up+view+of+toddler+word+learning.">A bottom-up view of toddler word learning.</a> Psychonomic Bulletin &amp; Review. 21 (1), 178-185 (2014).</li><li>Yu, C., Smith, L. B. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Joint+Attention+without+Gaze+Following:+Human+Infants+and+Their+Parents+Coordinate+Visual+Attention+to+Objects+through+Eye-Hand+Coordination.">Joint Attention without Gaze Following: Human Infants and Their Parents Coordinate Visual Attention to Objects through Eye-Hand Coordination.</a> PLOS ONE. 8 (11), e79659 (2013).</li><li>Jayaraman, S., Fausey, C. M., Smith, L. B. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+faces+in+infant-perspective+scenes+change+over+the+first+year+of+life.">The faces in infant-perspective scenes change over the first year of life.</a> PlOS ONE. 10 (5), e0123780 (2015).</li><li>Fausey, C. M., Jayaraman, S., Smith, L. B. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=From+faces+to+hands:+Changing+visual+input+in+the+first+two+years.">From faces to hands: Changing visual input in the first two years.</a> Cognition. 152, 101-107 (2016).</li><li>Jayaraman, S., Fausey, C. M., Smith, L. B. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Why+are+faces+denser+in+the+visual+experiences+of+younger+than+older+infants?.">Why are faces denser in the visual experiences of younger than older infants?.</a> Developmental Psychology. 53 (1), 38 (2017).</li><li>Clerkin, E. M., Hart, E., Rehg, J. M., Yu, C., Smith, L. B. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Real-world+visual+statistics+and+infants'+first-learned+object+names.">Real-world visual statistics and infants' first-learned object names.</a> Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences. 372, 20160055 (2017).</li></ol>

This paper outlines the basics for applying head-mounted cameras to infants to capture their egocentric visual scene. Commercially available head cameras are sufficient for the vast majority of studies. Small, lightweight, and portable cameras should be incorporated into a soft fabric hat or headband and applied to the child&#39;s head. Once successfully designed and implemented, a variety of experiments can be run, both in laboratory settings as well as in the home environment. From the videos gathered, aggregate data a...

For decades, psychologists have sought to understand the environment of the developing infant, which William James famously described as a &#34;blooming, buzzing confusion1.&#34; The everyday experiences of the infant are typically studied by filming naturalistic play with social partners from a third-person perspective. These views from the side or above typically show cluttered environments and a daunting number of potential referents for any new word an infant hears2. To an outside observer, James&#39;s description is apt, but this stationary, third-person perspective is not the way an infant sees the world. An infant is closer to the ground and can move through their world, bringing objects closer for visual exploration. A third-person view of a parent-infant interaction is illustrated in Figure 1. Highlighted are the fundamental differences between their perspectives. Perhaps, the input that infants receive is not nearly as chaotic as anticipated by parents and researchers. The goal of methods with head-mounted cameras is to capture the infant experience from a first-person view in order to understand the visual environment available to them throughout development.
Head-mounted cameras, worn on a hat or headband, provide a window into the moment-to-moment visual experiences of the developing infant. From this perspective, the study of the structure and regularities in the infant&#39;s environment becomes apparent. Head-mounted cameras have revealed infants&#39; visual experiences to be largely dominated by hands, both their own and their social partner&#39;s, and that face-looks, once considered imperative for establishing joint attention, are much scarcer than anticipated3. Head-mounted cameras have also shown that infants and their caregivers create moments when objects are visually dominant and centered in the infant&#39;s field of view (FOV), reducing the uncertainty inherent to object-label mapping4.
Head-mounted cameras capture the infants&#39; first-person view based on head movements. This view is not perfectly synchronous with, or representative of, infant eye movements, which can only be captured in conjunction with an eye-tracker. For instance, a shift of only the eyes while keeping the head stationary, or a shift of the head while keeping the eyes fixed on an object, will create a misalignment between the infants&#39; actual FOV and the one captured by the head camera. Nonetheless, during toy play, infants typically center the objects they are attending to, aligning their head, eyes, and the location of the toy with their body&#39;s midline5. Misalignments are rare and are typically created by momentary delays between an eye shift and the accompanying head turn3. Therefore, head-cameras are not well suited to capturing the rapid dynamics of shifts in attention. The strength of head-mounted cameras lies in capturing the everyday visual environment, revealing the visual content available to infants.
The following protocol and representative results will demonstrate how head-mounted cameras can be used to study the visual environment of infants and toddlers.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="626">
	<tbody>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Head-camera</td>
			<td style="width:79px;">Looxcie</td>
			<td style="width:165px;">Looxcie 3</td>
			<td style="width:167px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Head-camera</td>
			<td>Watec</td>
			<td>WAT-230A</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Head-camera</td>
			<td>Supercircuits</td>
			<td>PC207XP</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Head-camera</td>
			<td>KT&#38;C</td>
			<td>VSN500N</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Head-camera</td>
			<td>SereneLife</td>
			<td>HD Clip-On</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Head-camera</td>
			<td>Conbrov</td>
			<td>Pen TD88</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Head-camera</td>
			<td>Mvowizon</td>
			<td>Smiley Face Spy Button</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Head-camera</td>
			<td>Narrative</td>
			<td style="width:165px;">Clip 2</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Head-camera</td>
			<td>MeCam</td>
			<td style="width:165px;">DM06</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

a view of their own: capturing the egocentric view of infants and toddlers with head-mounted cameras

Infants and toddlers view the world, at a basic sensory level, in a fundamentally different way from their parents. This is largely due to biological constraints: infants possess different body proportions than their parents and the ability to control their own head movements is less developed. Such constraints limit the visual input available. This protocol aims to provide guiding principles for researchers using head-mounted cameras to understand the changing visual input experienced by the developing infant. Successful use of this protocol will allow researchers to design and execute studies of the developing child&#39;s visual environment set in the home or laboratory. From this method, researchers can compile an aggregate view of all the possible items in a child&#39;s field of view. This method does not directly measure exactly what the child is looking at. By combining this approach with machine learning, computer vision algorithms, and hand-coding, researchers can produce a high-density dataset to illustrate the changing visual ecology of the developing infant.

One simple, yet informative, analysis is to count the number of objects in view at each point in time. Since a head camera produces data at approximately 30 Hz (30 images/s), down-sampling the data to 1 image every 5 s helps to produce a more manageable dataset while maintaining a resolution appropriate for understanding the types of scenes children see. Prior research has demonstrated that visual scenes are slow-changing in infants3. A custom script was used to dr...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A View of Their Own: Capturing the Egocentric View of Infants and Toddlers with Head-Mounted Cameras at JoVE.com

A View of Their Own: Capturing the Egocentric View of Infants and Toddlers with Head-Mounted Cameras

Infants and toddlers view the world in a fundamentally different way from their parents. Head-mounted cameras provide a tractable mechanism to understand the infant visual environment. This protocol provides guiding principles for experiments in the home or laboratory to capture the egocentric view of toddlers and infants.

Infants and toddlers view the world, at a basic sensory level, in a fundamentally different way from their parents. This is largely due to biological ...

This method can help answer key questions in developmental psychology in the cognitive sciences such as what is the visual environment of infants and how does what they see influence their behavior? The main advantage of this technique is that it allows researchers to capture the view of an infant from their own perspective. This view is very different than that of an adult.This method can also be applied to adults and other non-human model organisms. Researchers have attached cameras to the heads or backs of birds, bats, and other species in the wild. One challenge with this protocol is successfully placing the head camera.Children can be fussy and sensitive to anything to anything touching their head so experimenter confidence is critical. Demonstrating this procedure will be graduate students Sarah Shroer and Catalina Suarez-Rivera. To begin ask a parent and the second experimenter to ensure that the child remains calm during the placement process and to distract the child as needed.Then ask the parent to desensitize the infant to hand actions near her head by slightly touching the infant's hair several times. After this, lightly touch the infant's hair and head. Provide the parent with distracting toys and instruct the parent and the second experimenter to gently push the infants hand toward the toy.While the infant is distracted place the head-mounted camera on the infant's head. Next, adjust the camera so that when the infant holds an object in front of his face the object is centered in the camera field of view. After this leave the room and begin the recording.In the event that the camera is moved out of place or removed reenter the room to correct the camera. First outfit the infant with the head camera as previously described. Provide the parent and infant with several toys before leaving the room.Subsample one frame of the video stream every five seconds. Then using software manually draw bounding boxes around each toy observed in the subsampled frame. If only part of an easily identifiable toy is visible in the frame draw a bounding box only around the visible part of the toy.In this protocol head-mounted cameras were used to count the number of objects in the view of a parent-infant dyad. In these representative results the child had a greater number of frames with fewer objects in view compared to the parent. The proportion of the screen taken up by each object in view was also analyzed.For both the parent and child there was a negative correlation between the number of objects in view and the visual sizes of those objects. Following this procedure further hand coding or computer vision algorithms can be used to answer more detailed questions about the properties of objects in the infant's view. This technique has been successfully used by our lab and others to address many research questions.Our lab has had a great deal of success using head-mounted cameras to explore the natural home environment and visual experiences of infants across the globe.

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Research

JoVE Journal

Behavior

7.3K vistas.  Indiana University. Este método puede ayudar a responder preguntas clave en la psicología del desarrollo en las ciencias cognitivas como ¿cuál es el entorno visual de los bebés y cómo influye lo que ven en su comportamiento? La principal ventaja de esta técnica es que permite a los investigadores capturar la vista de un bebé desde su propia perspectiva. Este punto de vista es muy diferente al de un adulto.Este método también se puede aplicar a adultos y otros organismos modelo no humanos. Los in...