From Behavior to Wellbeing
Automated welfare assessment powered by computer vision — grimace scale scoring, behavioral indices, and body condition analysis across species.
Welfare assessment hasn’t kept up with the science
The Problem
The Manual Scoring Bottleneck
Researchers spend 45+ minutes per session manually scoring grimace scales frame by frame. A single pain study generates hundreds of hours of video.
Subjectivity & Bias
Inter-rater reliability varies significantly. Different observers, different scores. Manual scoring introduces systematic bias that undermines research reproducibility.
No Real-Time Monitoring
Current welfare assessment is retrospective — captured on video, scored days later. By the time you know an animal is in pain, the window for intervention has passed.
Five approaches to automated welfare
Grimace Scale Scoring
Automated pain assessment via facial action units. Real-time grimace detection with validated species-specific models. Mouse, Rat, Cat, Horse, Sheep.
Behavior-Based Welfare Indices
Composite welfare scores from ethogram data. Aggregate grooming, nesting, locomotion, and social behaviors into a single index. Mouse, Rat, Cattle.
Body Condition & Lameness
Camera-only BCS and gait analysis. Depth estimation and pose tracking for non-invasive condition monitoring. Cattle, Horse, Sheep.
Qualitative Behavior Assessment
Posture and expression mapped to affective state. Machine-learning models trained on expert QBA consensus scores. Cattle, Pig, Sheep. Coming soon.
Vocalization Analysis
Acoustic emotion classification from audio recordings. Spectrogram-based deep learning for distress call detection. Pig, Cattle, Horse. Coming soon.
Species × method matrix
| Species | Grimace Scale | Behavior Indices | Body Condition | QBA | Vocalization |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mouse | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | — |
| Rat | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | — |
| Cat | ✓ | — | — | — | — |
| Dog | — | — | — | — | — |
| Horse | ✓ | — | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Pig | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cattle | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Poultry | — | — | — | — | — |
| Sheep/Goat | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | — |
From video to welfare score in four steps
How It Works
Video Input
Any Camera
- Cage-side, overhead, or facial close-up video
- Works with any standard camera system
- Batch upload supported
Detection & Tracking
Individual Animals
- Species-specific detection models
- Frame-by-frame identity tracking
- Multi-animal scene support
Feature Extraction
Welfare Signals
- Facial action units
- Posture keypoints and gait parameters
- Acoustic features for vocalization
Welfare Score
Validated Output
- Species-specific welfare scores
- Pain indices with confidence intervals
- Temporal trend reports
Validated against the published literature
GrimACE: Mouse Grimace Scale — r = 0.87
Human-level correlation on automated mouse grimace scoring using deep-learning facial action unit detection. Nature Lab Animal, 2026.
Automated Rat Grimace Scale — 97% AU Precision
Action unit detection precision on the Rat Grimace Scale with 14× speed improvement over manual scoring. Scientific Reports, 2023.
Feline Grimace Scale DL — 3,447 Images
Deep learning model trained on the largest annotated feline pain expression dataset for veterinary welfare assessment. Scientific Reports, 2023.
Ungulate Vocalization — 89.49% Accuracy
Acoustic classification of emotional valence in ungulate calls across multiple species using spectrogram analysis. Current Biology, 2025.
Welfare assessment across every setting
From Lab to Field
Laboratory — Proven
Mouse and rat grimace scales with validated deep-learning models. Automated behavioral ethograms from home-cage video. Real-time welfare scoring integrated into pain study protocols.
Companion Animals — Emerging
Cat and horse grimace scales for clinical pain assessment. Veterinary welfare tools for post-operative monitoring. Shelter intake behavior analysis for adoption readiness.
Livestock — In Development
Cattle BCS and lameness detection from walkway cameras. Pig vocalization analysis for distress monitoring. Farm-scale welfare auditing for regulatory compliance.
Partner with us on welfare assessment research
ConductVision Welfare is developed in collaboration with research partners across academia, veterinary medicine, and agricultural science. We’re looking for labs and institutions to validate, refine, and deploy automated welfare tools.
