Video annotation tools

1. YouTube video annotation

  • Web application.
  • Free to use.
  • Only annotates videos on YouTube. You can only annotate videos you have uploaded, while others can see the annotation.
  • Text annotation (“text bubbles” or notes), highlight part of the screen.
  • All annotations are editable.

2. Project Pad

  • Free to download on the website; open source under GPL.
  • Seems to use Java and Flash; stated requirements include Java, Flash and Quicktime.
  • Standalone (as a Java Servlet-based Web application) or as a part of Sakai
  • Shows timeline. Annotates with text. Does not look like you can draw on the screen.

3. Vertox

  • Made by the Concordia Digital History Lab of Concordia University of Montreal, Canada.
  • “Open source”; license unknown.
  • Requires “Firefox 2.0 browser and QuickTime Player for Mac or Windows; Java Runtime Environment (Windows only); Zotero, a Firefox extension”.
  • Supports “all QuickTime-compatible audio-video formats”.
  • Annotates local video files
  • Annotates with text, tags, time ranges.

4. Video Annotation and Reference System

  • Seems to be tailored towards a particlar application (annotating videos recorded by unmanned vehicles under the ocean).
  • Open source; GPL
  • Java-based

5. Multimedia Annotator

  • Not much info available. Seems to let you annotate your own video file in a standalone application.
  • Not free (“$30 for academic license”); no trial version available.

6. BubblePLY

  • Web application.
  • Free to use.
  • All users can create “Bubbles” (annotated videos); registered (free) users can edit their own Bubbles.
  • Annotates remote videos (e.g. those on YouTube) by pasting the URL.
  • Annotates with text, drawing, subtitle, pre-defined clipart, uploaded image file.

7. VideoANT

  • Web application.
  • Free to use.
  • Source: YouTube video
  • Annotate with time point marker and text

8. Video Annotation through CCLE

9. vatic

  • Web application
  • Free
  • Crowdsource video annotation to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk

10. frametrail

  • Open source, but you will have to host the software
  • Annotate with text overlays, images or interactive maps
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