Title: MBARI's Video Annotation and Reference System

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

	Video is a low impact and effective tool for collecting scientifically valuable 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 Over the past sixteen years, 16,000 videotapes (equates to over 14,000 hours) have been archived and managed as a centralized institutional resource.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 2.3 million annotations, created by over 100 scientists, 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.
	VARS was expressly designed so that other institutions could easily adopt it and in 2005 was released as open-source software. More information about VARS as well as a VARS demonstration application can be obtained at http://vars.sourceforge.net.