AniWellTracker: Image Analysis of Small Animal Locomotion in Multiwell Plates
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
1.Although the fourth part of the article has introduced the comparison with other similar software, it is suggested to supplement the development of such software in the first part.
2.It is recommended to supplement software performance comparison, such as image processing speed.
3.In addition to the researchers using this software, Researchers follow up on whether your work is mainly algorithm processing or GUI software program structure. It is suggested to supplement the outlook on how other researchers follow up your work in Part 5 of the article.
4.In the sixth part of the article, it is suggested to explain the contents of the two websites, for example, the second website emphasizes that the contents should reproduce the experimental results.
Author Response
Dear Reveiwer:
I wish to re-submit the manuscript titled “AniWellTracker: Image analysis of small animal locomotion in multiwell plates.”
We thank you and the reviewers for your thoughtful suggestions and insights. The manuscript has benefited from these insightful suggestions. I look forward to working with you and the reviewers to move this manuscript closer to publication in Applied Sciences.
The manuscript has been rechecked and the necessary changes have been made in accordance with the reviewers’ suggestions. The responses to all comments have been prepared and attached herewith/given below.
Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Sang-Kyu Jung
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This work, uses images to track small animal locomotion, seems interesting to me. The authors proposed an image-based analysis tool, referred to as AniWellTracker, to provide several useful functions for tracking and reviewing individual animal movement behavior. Though, as the MS claims, the software may be useful to animal researchers, there are some concerns that should be cleared to improve the scientific contributions of the MS:
1. Introducing more background info on recent image-based motion tracking or analysis helps to improve the potential impact of the work. Here are some suggestions:
[1] Su ZL, et al. Recursive-iterative digital image correlation based on salient features, Optical Eng., 2020.
[2] Haalck L et al. Towards image-based animal tracking in natural environments using a freely moving camera, Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 2020.
[3] . Tracktor: Image-based automated tracking of animal movement and behaviour, Methods Ecol Evol, 2019.
2. Please add an action flow and a data flow of the software operation to figure 1 for making the audience easy to follow.
3. Please add a compact introduction to the key algorithm implementations, such as region extraction and centroiding, instead of introducing the software functions only.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
I wish to re-submit the manuscript titled “AniWellTracker: Image analysis of small animal locomotion in multiwell plates.”
We thank you and the reviewers for your thoughtful suggestions and insights. The manuscript has benefited from these insightful suggestions. I look forward to working with you and the reviewers to move this manuscript closer to publication in Applied Sciences.
The manuscript has been rechecked and the necessary changes have been made in accordance with the reviewers’ suggestions. The responses to all comments have been prepared and attached herewith/given below.
Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Sang-Kyu Jung
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Thanks for reviewing this manuscript. In my opinion, this manuscript can be accepted in present form. This research helps researchers track and review individual animal movement behavior,And because the software is open source, anyone can add functions to the software or reuse the image analysis software architecture. I think this is a practical work.
Reviewer 2 Report
I suggest that the editor reconsider whether to accept the article. If yes, it can be published in the current version.
