Name: a view of their own: capturing the egocentric view of infants and toddlers with head-mounted cameras
Uploaded: 2018-10-05T14:45:00
Description: 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

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 (Video) | JoVE

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.

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 ...

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