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

• Web application
• Need a CCLE Moodle site
• Annotates videos from YouTube and the UCLA TV News Archive
• Annotates with text tags and events, as well as geolocation

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