Title: MBARI's Video Annotation and Reference System

Authors: Brian Schlining*
    * Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)

	Video can be a relatively low impact and effective tool for collecting fisheries-related information. As more studies employ video data, it is essential to have an efficient system for managing the ensuing hundreds or thousands of hours of video and the associated video annotation information. MBARI’s Video Annotation and Reference System (VARS) is a working example of a system for managing large amounts of video data.
	The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) uses high-resolution video equipment to record over 300 remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives per year. Over the past sixteen years, 16,000 videotapes (equates to over 12,000 hours) have been archived and managed as a centralized institutional resource. MBARI has developed a custom software and hardware system, VARS, to facilitate the creation, storage, and retrieval of video annotations based on ROV dive tapes. The VARS components reference a knowledge database of over 3500 biological, geological and technical terms. This hierarchical information allows for consistent and rapid classification, description, and complex querying of objects observed on video. MBARI currently has over 1.8 million annotations stored in the VARS system. These annotations have been used in over 200 professional publications and presentations, in addition to numerous education and outreach projects. These publications span multiple sub-disciplines within biology, geology and chemistry.
	An operational VARS suite consists of a relational database, a videotape recorder (VTR) that supports the Sony 9-pin protocol over RS-422, and the three VARS applications: Knowledgebase, Annotation, and Query. The relational database is used as a centralized repository for storing the knowledgebase data and annotations. Each VARS application is responsible for different aspects of the information stored in the database. The Knowledgebase application is used for managing the controlled vocabulary for creating and searching for annotations. Annotations and images captured from the video are added to the relational database through the Annotation application. The Query application provides simple, convenient access to the annotations, video images, and related ancillary data.
	VARS was expressly designed so that other institutions could easily adopt it and in 2005 was released as open-source software. This presentation will give an overview of the capabilities the VARS system and showcase examples of video analysis that could be applied to fisheries research. More information about VARS as well as a VARS demonstration application can be obtained at http://vars.sourceforge.net.