Media streams: an iconic visual language for video annotation

I guess this post catogorises as ‘Annotation memorabilia’, posted here not so much because of its actuality, but for archiving sake.
As contribution to magazine Telektronikk 4.93: Cyberspace, Marc Davis introduced an iconographic system for the representation of video-content. This system; Media Streams, is written in the beginning of the nineties. Departing from the assumption that it will be possible in the near future to integrate annotation into the process of image production Media Streams proposes a rigid formula for annotation in which visual typologies are marked by specific icons.
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Although some aspects of video can be automatically parsed, a detailed representation requires that video be annotated. We discuss the design criteria for a video annotation language with special attention to the issue of creating a global, reusable video archive. We outline in detail the iconic visual language we have developed and a stream-based representation of video data.

Our prototype system, Media Streams, enables users to create multi-layered, iconic annotations of video content. Icon Palettes enable users to group related sets of iconic descriptors, use these descriptors to annotate video content, and reuse descriptive effort. Media Time Lines enable users to visualise and browse the structure of video content and its annotations. The problems of creating a representation of action for video are given special attention, as well as describing transitions in video.

Posted on: Monday, October 9, 2006 by: in category: Annotation tools