Dear all,
Ive been meaning to jump in on this conversation several times, but I keep getting side-tracked.
For over two years now, we have been developing a protocol and associated software tools (I use the pronoun "we" loosely as far as the software development goes -- that has been entirely the work of Rob Whitton) to allow us to harness the power of video for our scientific purposes. We conduct surveys of coral-reef fishes in the Pacific, and the use of hi-definition underwater video cameras allow us to make dozens of "video vouchers" (as we call them) of fish species in the context of their natural habitat on every single dive (again, I use the pronoun "we" loosely, as John Earle is the primary videographer on our surveys). Though perhaps not as ideal as specimens, the video is much better than in-situ still photos (especially at hi-def resolution), because it gives us multiple angles on the subject (increasing the probability of capturing that elusive but diagnostic small black spot near the anus), as well as behavior (which can sometimes aid in confirming identifications). And its a LOT better than just an un-imaged observation record. It also allows us to document many more species on a given dive than we could by collecting alone.
The software that Rob Whitton has developed is optimized for field-based capturing of metadata. We (i.e., John) will generally catalog the video clips on the same day the video was taken. Metadata is robust, with full locality/habitat data (including depth and other parameters), as well as rich content cataloging (multiple identifications of the same imaged organism, etc.) At the moment, we (i.e., John & Rob) have something on the order of 7,000 video clips cataloged -- representing nearly a terabyte of video files (a mix of both standard-resolution DV and HDV). Very soon we will have an initial website online to allow searching/etc., and we have a couple of major regional checklists in the works that will cite these "video vouchers" in addition to more traditional means of documenting species at localities.
So...the reason I am posting this now (rather than wait until the site is online) is to ask others who are exploring the use of video content for similar purposes how they plan to implement it.
Our current plan is to maintain an archive of full-resolution digital video files on our local SAN, but the files are much too large to stream in real-time over almost any typical internet connection, and moreover would completely choke our bandwidth if the site ever became popular. For this reason, we want to use a video hosting service to stream the content, which we will link to from our own web databases (which themselves will serve only keyframes from the clips).
Weve been working with Google to sort out a way to do batch uploads onto Google Video. I generally prefer the Google Video environment over YouTube, but Im not familiar with other video hosting services that are out there.
Here is a sample clip:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=153611051098248174
Google Video allows me to dump all of the metadata into the Description field. Unfortunately, this is not very structured. However, Google Video allows you to link back to your own web page for each clip, so I can have that link go to an LSID resolver, or some other web interface where more structured metadata can be served. Another feature I like is that you can lay as many subtitle/caption files as you want. For example, if you go to the link above, in the lower right corner youll see a little "CC" icon. Click on the drop-down button to the right of the "CC" button, and you can choose from any number of subtitle tracks. In the example above, there are two different tracks: "Audio Dialog" transcribes the spoken words you hear on the clip's soundtrack, and "Species List", which names the species as they appear in the clip. Rob Whitton is developing his software to automatically generate the text for the metadata and multiple CC tracks, so that we can (eventually) automate the upload process.
The main problem -- which I think will be true of any of these video hosting services -- is the limited resoloution of the clips as they are streamed. For example, here is a frame from the original HDV clip in the above link:
http://www2.bishopmuseum.org/testvideo/Frame01.jpg
Here is the same frame at the resolution that the video is rendered on Google Video:
http://www2.bishopmuseum.org/testvideo/Frame02.jpg
Obviously, the full-resolution video contains a LOT more information. The problem is that an MPG (i.e., compressed) copy of the full-resolution HDV clip is 172MB, whereas the compressed version that Google streams is 3.5MB. The problem is not with Google Video -- it's with the internet. Most people will not have access to the badwidth necessary to stream video at the full HDV resolution.
So...what we'd like is a service that will allow people to view the clips at a resolution that is reasonable to stream over the internet (Google Video, YouTube, etc.), but then have the option of downloading the full-resolution file (in this case, 178MB) if they want to see it on their own computer, and are willing to wait for the full download. Obviously, we'll have to somehow regulate the downloading so that we don't choke our bandwidth -- but we want to allow people to have access to the full-resolution imagery.
My hope is that Google (or whoever) itself would offer the service of streaming content at an appropriate resolution, but then allowing people to download the full resolution clip as a file, if they want (i.e., using Google's or whoever's bandwidth, and not ours). But for the time being, we mostly see Google as a way to: 1) Manage streaming of video content at low resolution, and 2) increase visibility (through Google searches_ of the content we do have.
Of course, the latter depends heavily on how well the metadata are fleshed out and structured -- which brings me back to Éamonn's post. Like him, I am very-much looking forward to conversations at the upcoming meeting in Bratislava.
Meanwhile, I guess the main point of this message is to ask whether others know of analagous projects, and how they have dealt with issues of bandwidth, bulk uploading to video hosting services, and metadata structure and content.
Aloha, Rich
Richard L. Pyle, PhD Database Coordinator for Natural Sciences and Associate Zoologist in Ichthyology Department of Natural Sciences, Bishop Museum 1525 Bernice St., Honolulu, HI 96817 Ph: (808)848-4115, Fax: (808)847-8252 email: deepreef@bishopmuseum.org http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/pylerichard.html
-----Original Message----- From: tdwg-bounces@lists.tdwg.org [mailto:tdwg-bounces@lists.tdwg.org] On Behalf Of Eamonn O Tuama Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 5:20 AM To: 'Timothy M. Jones'; tdwg@lists.tdwg.org Subject: RE: [tdwg] Species pages and video
Dear Timothy,
I think the use of video is valuable even if there is not much motion involved - combining a series of stills with voice over can be very effective - and the many video hosting services makes it relatively easy to get online. However, unlike text which can be mined for information, video (and images) require good metadata to describe what the content is about - to aid in searches, etc.
Your species pages with their general facts and interactive taxonomic keys span the task areas covered by SDD (Structure of Descriptive Data) and SPM (Species Profile Model) TDWG interest groups. I look forward to fruitful discussions between the two at the forthcoming meeting in Bratislava that will lead to standardised ways of marking up your species content so that it is more easily discoverable, accessible and re-usable (assuming permissions granted) across what GBIF has labelled "The Universal Biodiversity Data Bus".
Best regards,
Éamonn
-----Original Message----- From: tdwg-bounces@lists.tdwg.org [mailto:tdwg-bounces@lists.tdwg.org] On Behalf Of Timothy M. Jones Sent: 10 August 2007 16:48 To: tdwg@lists.tdwg.org Subject: [tdwg] Species pages and video
Hello,
I will not be attending the meeting this fall but thought that this may be of interest to those interested in species pages models. I am working on species pages that include the use of video. The videos were only added a month ago and are a bit rudimentary (with budget-conscious equipment) but the potential now seems truly limitless.
Examples - http://utc.usu.edu/factsheets/CarexFSF/new/carex_eburnea_species.htm
http://utc.usu.edu/factsheets/CarexFSF/new/carex_nebrascensis_ species.htm
http://utc.usu.edu/factsheets/CarexFSF/new/carex_mitchelliana_ species.htm
Comments appreciated, Timothy M. Jones http://utc.usu.edu/keys/Carex/Carex.html _______________________________________________ tdwg mailing list tdwg@lists.tdwg.org http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg
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