Experiments were performed in a shear cell device under four different solid fractions. The glass spheres with a mean diameter of 3 mm were used as granular materials. The motions of the granular materials were recorded by a high-speed camera. By using image processing technology and a particle tracking method, the average and fluctuation velocities in the streamwise and the transverse directions could be successfully measured and analyzed. Three bi-directional stress gages were used to measure the normal and shear stresses along the upper boundary. The effective viscosity of the granular material flow can be calculated. By tracking the movements of particles continually, the curves of the mean-square diffusive displacements versus time were plotted and were used to determine the self-diffusion coefficients from the slopes of the curves. The fluctuations and the self-diffusion coefficients in the streamwise direction were much higher than those in the transverse direction. The fluctuations were found to increase with the solid fraction, but the diffusion coefficients were greater in a more dilute flow system. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.