| Main Menu | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| Translations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
| Login Form |
|---|
| Video Analysis |
|
Video Analysis SoftwareSable Systems is pleased to announce two unique video analysis software packages! VideoDaemon1 adds intensity, color, activity, and position recording to ExpeData. VideoDaemon2 allows playback of separately recorded video with the maximum possible analytical versatility, and has text-file output. VideoDaemon1 is an add-on to our ExpeData data acquisition and analysis package. Using any digital video stream (for example, from a webcam or from a video digitizer attached to any video camera), you can record information perfectly synchronized with other channels of ongoing data acquisition. For example, you can set up a video camera to obtain information on an experimental animal or preparation while simultaneously acquiring other data - for example, oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide emission, temperature, et cetera - from the same preparation. What kind of data can you acquire from the video signal? Here's where VideoDaemon1 shines. Basically, you can set up a focus area anywhere on the video image, and from that focus rectangle, you can choose any of the following data to record:
VideoDaemon1 communicates with ExpeData via a proprietary shared data area in the host computer (not via the clipboard). The communication is transparent and instantaneous. Simply point your camera (which can be a $20 webcam) at the subject, set the focus area within the image (the focus area can be as small or large as you wish), choose which variable(s) you to record, and Bam! You're in business. As mentioned earlier, you can record anything else you wish with ExpeData at the same time, maintaining perfect synchrony between your video data and your other channels of data. Or just record video-derived data. Your choice. You may use any video image from any source you wish, as long as it is compatible with Windows video components (that means practically anything). Typical computer video cameras are set up to yield images of 320x240 or 640x480 pixels. VideoDaemon1 allows you to set any resolution your camera and its video driver supports, including higher resolutions such as 720x480 or more. The effective update rate of VideoDaemon1's data will depend on the video source, the video resolution, the speed of the computer, and the size of the focus rectangle, and can vary - depending on these factors - between 30 Hz and a few Hz. Best of all, VideoDaemon1 is very reasonably priced. In fact, VideoDaemon1 and ExpeData combined cost less than certain far inferior contrast-based video analysis packages and their imitations! VideoDaemon1 has been in development for some time and is being unveiled at the Bonn respiratory biology meetings on August 14 (the date of this web announcement). VideoDaemon2 is intended chiefly for intensity and activity analysis of pre-recorded video. Often that video will be recorded in synchrony with other channels of data recorded on ExpeData. VideoDaemon2 differs from VideoDaemon1 in that you can specify up to 100 separate focus areas in the image, from which VideoDaemon2 will extract mean intensities in any combination of red, green or blue. It operates in frame by frame mode, loading each frame into memory, analyzing it, and then loading the next. The video can be anything in industry-standard standard .avi format, including 720x480 digital video at the high end, or webcam output at the medium or low end. Start and end points for the analysis are easily and quickly set. Data extracted from the video are saved as an ASCII text file that can be loaded into any software package, including ExpeData. Enhancements are planned to both this package and ExpeData in the near future that will allow users to record video data as part of the ExpeData data stream - but even now, this package is very useful even by itself.
If you've read this far, you'll already be thinking of applications of this video analysis program in your research. Lots of them. My God, how did you ever live without this? You'll be glad to hear that once again, this program is very reasonably priced. VideoDaemon2 has been in development for some time and is being unveiled at the Bonn respiratory biology meetings on August 14 (the date of this web announcement). We're using VideoDaemon1 and VideoDaemon2 in our in-house research programs as we speak. We think you'll like them. Their design is original and is driven by real-world research needs. They're not think-alike, monkey-see-monkey-do imitations of existing products. Speaking of which, the imitation stopwatch starts... now. Contact us for questions, pricing and ordering information. Value Inside. Our video analysis products (like all of our products) come with free, lifetime technical support. Minor updates are free. Major updates carry a nominal charge. Sable Systems is a company founded by scientists for scientists. We are certain that you will enjoy doing business with us. |
This versatility opens the door to using VideoDaemon1 for activity recording; heart rate analysis; recording of any action or movement; or the tracking of a moving object in any arena or landscape, with a scale of microns to kilometers. Unlike simple-minded video analysis systems designed for use in labs only, VideoDaemon1 does not use contrast-based position determination! It obtains intensity data as well (in three colors!), and its position determination for movement tracking is based on changes in the image, not on contrast. Thus, unlike inferior systems, you can use it to track an object (or quantify an intensity) against a confusing or cluttered background - even a background like the Brazilian pencil holder shown in the image to the left (click on it to enlarge it). In this case, the focus area is the small rectangle just under the wings; you can easily imagine how you can use VideoDaemon1 to track changes in a small area of an image, quite apart from its ability to track an object.
As an example, consider this insect (click on the image to enlarge it). This is an example of a high quality, 720x480, 30 fps image created by a top-of-the-line video capture system. The insect is backlit, and movements of its internal or external structures produce tiny changes in intensity easily detected by VideoDaemon2. In the image to the left three focus areas are specified, which VideoDaemon2 obligingly numbers in the order they were specified (you will see them clearly in the magnified image). Click on CAPTURE (in the real program, not the image to the left!), and almost in real time you will see the clip play back, and the analysis you specified will take place. The resulting data are saved with the same name and location as the video file, but with a ".txt" extension. The first column is elapsed seconds; the subsequent columns are the specified data, ordered by focus area number. Reasonably, you are wondering how to keep track of which area is which. Voila, we, as scientists, know how you think - after all, we're innovators, not imitators. One click, and an image file complete with all focus rectangles is saved to the same location as the video file. And here are the data, as interpreted by Excel (the X axis shows frame number, and the series are numbered in the same order as the focus areas):