Extending trx.mat to support multi-keypoint pose data (SLEAP integration)

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Rotem Yehuda

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Apr 6, 2026, 8:22:32 AMApr 6

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Hi,

Our lab has recently transitioned from CTRAX to SLEAP for tracking, which provides ~11 body keypoints per fly, including individual leg positions. We compute per-frame features directly from these keypoints and export them in JAABA-compatible format.

Our question concerns the extensibility of JAABA’s tracking data model. While trx.mat already includes several body-related quantities, it is not clear to us whether there is a supported way to include additional keypoints (e.g., per-leg positions), and if so, how JAABA is expected to handle or utilize such data.

In a previous thread, APT was suggested as a potential intermediate solution:
https://groups.google.com/g/jaaba/c/_1Cnj2gFzUY/m/Y1EFH_zVAAAJ

This seems highly relevant to our case, and we would greatly appreciate any clarification on how such a workflow would be implemented in practice, particularly with respect to incorporating additional pose keypoints into a JAABA-compatible pipeline.