Yandex has developed an AI tool for automatic analysis of video recordings with laboratory mice.

Yandex has developed an AI tool for automatic analysis of video recordings with laboratory mice. Such recordings are the basis of cognitive research: by studying animal behavior, scientists investigate brain function and develop methods for treating emotional disorders. The problem is that manual annotation of a 10-minute video takes about an hour, and for a full study, dozens of hours of material need to be processed. My classmates at Heidelberg University also worked on analyzing videos with mice, so I am familiar with this problem. The new tool performs this work in minutes: the system finds key points on the mouse's body and recognizes its actions with 89% accuracy. Scientists have already saved 500 hours of manual labor using it, but this is just the beginning—such automation allows for easier scaling of experiments, leading to better quality. Currently, the company provides access to the tool upon request, and in the future, it will open its source code for the entire scientific community. This will allow researchers to use the solution in other socially significant projects.