A short overview of various video annotation software:
– Anvil by Michael Kipp is a java-based program for storing several layers of annotations, like a text sequencer. Can only use avi files. Intended for gesture research (understood as gestures used when talking).
– Transana from University of Wisconsin, Madison, is developed mainly as a tool for transcribing and describing video and audio content. Seems like it is mainly intended for behavioural studies. It is based on writing rtf-files (with optional manual time coding), so not much possibilities for multiple streams etc.
– IBM Research – VideoAnnEx Annotation Tool is an advanced annotation tool using MPEG-7 descriptors.
– Noldus Observer is a commercial software package for Windows which seems to be very extensive. Allows for multiple camera recording and synchronization as well as data from DAQs.
We just released some video annotation software as an open-source project. It’s designed with scientific annotations in mind. The software is called VARS (short for Video Annotation and Reference System) and it’s available at http://vars.sourceforge.net
Sooner or later my lab should release a video annotator tool similar to VideoAnnEx. It was targeted at Linux, but I’m trying to port it to Windows too. A screenshot is available on my blog.