---
task_categories:
  - keypoint-detection
license: cc-by-4.0
tags:
  - biology
  - pose-estimation
  - mouse
  - lightning-pose
pretty_name: Mirror Mouse
size_categories:
  - 1K<n<10K
---

# Mirror Mouse — Lightning Pose Multi-View Dataset

Multi-camera pose estimation dataset for mouse locomotion keypoints, packaged for use with [Lightning Pose](https://github.com/paninski-lab/lightning-pose).

## Dataset Description

Head-fixed mice run on a circular treadmill while avoiding a moving obstacle (Warren et al., *eLife* 2021). The treadmill has a transparent floor and a mirror mounted inside at 45°, allowing a single camera to capture two roughly orthogonal views — a side view and a bottom view via the mirror — simultaneously at **250 Hz**. Each frame is labeled with **14 keypoints**: 7 body keypoints visible from the side (top) and the same 7 keypoints from the bottom (mirror) view. This dataset splits these mirrored frames into separate top and bottom images/videos, each with 7 keypoints.

> **Note:** The original dataset contains keypoints on the moving obstacle; this version removes those keypoints.

Source data: Warren et al., *eLife* 2021 — original archive at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24993315.
Data collected by Richard Warren and Qianyun Zhang in the Sawtell Lab, Columbia University.

## Data Splits

| Split | Labeled instances | Sessions |
|-------|---------------:|---------:|
| In-distribution (InD) | 789 | 17 |
| Out-of-distribution (OOD) | 253 | 5 |

InD and OOD sets contain **different sessions / animals** (no overlap).

- `CollectedData_{cam}.csv` — InD labels; `videos/` — InD videos
- `CollectedData_{cam}_test.csv` — OOD labels; `videos_test/` — OOD videos

## Keypoints

7 body keypoints per view:

- paw1LH
- paw2LF
- paw3RF
- paw4RH
- tailBase
- tailMid
- nose

## Directory Structure

```
mirror-mouse-separate/
├── labeled-data/                       # Extracted frames per session; includes ±2 context frames
├── videos/                             # InD session video clips
├── videos_test/                        # OOD session video clips
├── videos-for-each-labeled-frame/      # 51-frame videos centered on each OOD labeled frame
├── CollectedData_{cam}.csv             # InD 2D keypoint labels (x,y per keypoint) for each camera view
├── CollectedData_{cam}_test.csv        # OOD 2D keypoint labels for each camera view
├── config_mirror-mouse-separate.yaml   # Sample Lightning Pose training config
└── project.yaml                        # View and keypoint definitions (required by LP App)
```

The `videos-for-each-labeled-frame/` directory contains 51-frame video clips with the labeled frame at the center, intended for use with temporal smoothers such as the [Ensemble Kalman Smoother](https://github.com/paninski-lab/eks).

See the Lightning Pose documentation for full details on the [multi-view data directory structure](https://lightning-pose.readthedocs.io/en/latest/source/directory_structure_reference/multiview_structure.html).

## Usage with Lightning Pose

The included `config_mirror-mouse-separate.yaml` is a ready-to-use training config. Key settings:

- **Image resize:** 256 × 128
- **Backbone:** `vits_dino`
- **Keypoints:** 7

Update `data.data_dir` to absolute paths on your machine before training.

```bash
litpose train config_mirror-mouse-separate.yaml
```

## Citation

If you use this dataset, please cite the original paper:

```bibtex
@article{warren2021rapid,
  title     = {A rapid whisker-based decision underlying skilled locomotion in mice},
  author    = {Warren, Richard A and Zhang, Qianyun and Hoffman, Judah R and Li, Edward Y and
               Hong, Y Kate and Bruno, Randy M and Sawtell, Nathaniel B},
  journal   = {eLife},
  volume    = {10},
  pages     = {e63596},
  year      = {2021},
  publisher = {eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd}
}
```

Original data archive: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24993315.