2D and 3D video digitizing with a web browser


SOCIETY FOR INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY
2021 VIRTUAL ANNUAL MEETING (VAM)
January 3 – Febuary 28, 2021

Meeting Abstract


P14-4  Sat Jan 2  2D and 3D video digitizing with a web browser Byrd, MA; Hedrick, TL*; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC thedrick@bio.unc.edu http://biomech.web.unc.edu

Many data collection workflows throughout integrative and comparative biology use video recordings as a measurement method. Furthermore, the ever-improving capabilities of smartphones now place high resolution and slow-motion video recording capabilities in the pockets of many high school and undergraduate students. However, analyzing video recordings to produce research data has commonly required installing and learning to use specialized software, adding an additional hurdle to overcome in contexts such as remote learning where video might enable at-home lab experiments but access to video analysis software is limited. Furthermore, the desktop application paradigm traps the resulting data products on a single computer where they may be difficult to share. Here we present an open-source web-based video digitizing and annotation program authored in JavaScript that runs in any modern browser. Our tool enables 2D marker annotation in multiple videos and supports 3D reconstruction via direct linear transformation. The video files themselves are accessed locally but can potentially be uploaded to the server for later re-downloading to enable project portability. User-generated video digitizing data are stored on the server but can be downloaded in text or JSON format. In addition to working with the browser software already present on student computers, the client-server model also potentially facilitates use of Deep Learning and other computationally intensive analysis methods that would not typically be available on these devices. While end-users currently find it difficult to install these tools or to marshal the necessary resources, these could be coordinated from the server. Finally, improvements to our tool are ongoing and the nature of a web applications ensures that all users immediately get the benefit of any future improvements.

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