User Documentation

Notes

• VIAME Web is automatically updated and down for 10 minutes on 2 am EST/EDT Sundays and Thursdays
• For problems, feature requests, etc. please email [email protected]
• To move data to the core (global) training data from your personal folder, please also email [email protected]

Documentation

Current capabilities of VIAME Web include:

• User import of frame images or video.
• Playback of existing annotation data.
• Manual creation of new annotations.
• Automatic object detection and tracking of user-imported data.
• Manual user refinement of automatically generated tracks
• Export of generated annotations.

Controls

control	description
f or right arrow	skip forward 1 frame
d or left arrow	skip backward 1 frame
h	toggle annotate head position mode
t	toggle annotate tail position mode
space	play/pause
mouse scroll	zoom
mouse drag	pan
shift + drag	select area to zoom
left-click	select/de-select track
right-click	toggle track edit mode

Register for an account

A user account is required to store data and run pipelines on viame.kitware.com.

1. Visit https://viame.kitware.com
2. Click Register

Adding a data source

• Open the VIAME Web Homepage, and navigate to the "Data" tab.
• Click the blue "user home" button at the top left of the data browser.
• Choose your "public" or "private" folder.
• Click the blue "Upload" button that appears in the toolbar.
• Select either an .mp4 video or multi-select a group of image frames.
• If you already have annotations.csv, select that too.
• Choose a name for the data, enter the optional video playback frame rate, and press start-upload.
• In the data browser, a new blue "Annotate" button will appear next to your data.

General annotation controls

General Definitions

• Track: a series of bounding box detections of a single object over time
• Detection a single bounding box on an individual frame
• Types: a set of mutually exclusive object classifications that can be applied to a Track, such as "species" if annotating animals.
• Meatballs menu: a horizontal 3-dot icon that expands to show a menu.

General controls

• Select detection: left-click on a detection.
• Edit existing detection: right-click on a detection, adjust its position, then right click again to accept your changes. You'll notice the outline of the old detection go away when you successfully save the new one.
• Delete single detection: Press q when a detection is selected.
• Delete single track: In the track list, a meatballs menu will appear on hover. Click the meatballs menu and click "Delete Track".

Creating a new track

• In the track list header, click the + button.
• Your cursor will turn into a cross-hair.
• Click-and-drag to draw a box over the object you intend to track. This creates a detection. If you edit it again, you must save the edits (see above).
• Use the f and d keys or the left/right arrows to advance forward and backward in time frame-by-frame.
• Notice that when you change the current frame, your cursor becomes a cross-hair again.
• left-click within the editable region of the final detection to complete track creation.
• left-click the track again to select it in the Track list.
• Double-click its type to open the list of available types, and select one.

Adding head and tail point annotations

When annotating fish, it's possible to add additional detection-level annotations for head and tail position. It's best to first create a complete track of a fish before adding head/tail annotations.

• Select the detection you wish to add head/tail points for by left-clicking it.
• To begin with the head, tap the h (or g) key.
• Your cursor will change to a cross-hair. Left-click to place a marker.
• If the tail does not exist, your cursor will stay a cross-hair, and you can left-click the tail immediately to place another marker.

Notes:

• You can also start with the tail: tap t (or y)
• You don't have to place both markers. Press any of g, h, t, or y to exit head/tail annotation mode. Your cursor will change back to a pointer.
• You can modify an existing head/tail marker by tapping the corresponding key. If you place one marker and the other already exists, you will not be automatically prompted to place the second.
• To Delete a head/tail pair, select a detection with existing markers and tap q.
• When a track is selected, a meatball menu will appear in the top-right corner of the annotation window. All hotkey controls are also available on that menu.

Persisting changes

Annotations are not automatically persisted to the VIAME server. To save your changes, click the save disk at the right side of the top toolbar.