Multi-Video Annotation Across Calibrated Imaging Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing video annotation methods are time-consuming for humans and computationally expensive, especially in environments with multiple aligned imaging devices, requiring significant manual labor and processing power to accurately annotate objects in video files.
Innovation Solution
A system that utilizes calibrated imaging devices to propagate annotations made by a human operator to multiple video frames, employing tracking algorithms to track the object of interest and adjust annotations based on confidence levels, reducing the need for repetitive manual effort and computational resources.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual annotation is used to mark objects in video frames, then annotation accuracy is improved, but time consumption increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by annotating only the first video frame manually or automatically, then uses the calibrated relationship between imaging devices to propagate these annotations to subsequent frames through tracking algorithms, eliminating the need for repetitive manual annotation in each frame while maintaining accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates copies of annotations from the first frame and applies them to subsequent frames by transforming coordinates based on the calibrated spatial relationships between multiple imaging devices, allowing efficient propagation of annotation data across the video sequence
2Productivity
If automatic annotation methods are used to reduce manual labor, then productivity is improved, but computational cost increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by annotating only the first video frame manually or automatically, then uses the calibrated relationship between imaging devices to propagate these annotations to subsequent frames through tracking algorithms, eliminating the need for repetitive manual annotation in each frame while maintaining accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses a single set of annotations from the first frame to generate annotations for multiple subsequent frames by leveraging the calibrated spatial relationships between imaging devices, making the annotation process universal across the entire video sequence rather than requiring separate processing for each frame
3Loss of information
If multiple imaging devices are used to capture video from a scene, then data completeness is improved, but annotation complexity increases exponentially
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges the annotation tasks for multiple imaging devices by using the calibrated spatial relationships to propagate annotations from one device's video stream to others, combining what would be separate annotation processes into a unified approach that reduces overall complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The calibrated spatial relationship data acts as an intermediary that enables automatic transformation of annotation coordinates between different imaging devices' video frames, mediating the annotation process and eliminating the need for manual coordination between multiple devices
Data Source
AI summary
Multiple video files that are captured by calibrated imaging devices may be annotated based on a single annotation of an image frame of one of the video files. An operator may enter an annotation to an image frame via a user interface, and the annotation may be replicated from the image frame to other image frames that were captured at the same time and are included in other video files. Annotations may be updated by the operator and/or tracked in subsequent image frames. Predicted locations of the annotations in subsequent image frames within each of the video files may be determined, e.g., by a tracker, and a confidence level associated with any of the annotations may be calculated. Where the confidence level falls below a predetermined threshold, the operator may be prompted to delete or update the annotation, or the annotation may be deleted.