Hobart

Seminar abstract

Friday 9 November 2007, 11.30am (Tas time)
CSIRO Auditorium, Hobart

Brian Schlining
Frolich Fellow
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Pamela Brodie
Programmer, Technical Services
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research

Alan Williams
Fisheries Biologist
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research

Turning video into data – and then managing the monster!

Video is a non-extractive and effective tool for collecting scientifically valuable information on the marine environment, but it comes with high data management overheads. The often rapid accumulation of data makes it essential to have an efficient system for managing both the data and the associated annotation information. This talk provides an overview of a software platform for this purpose: the Video Annotation and Reference System (VARS) written by Brian Schlining for the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). MBARI scientists record over 300 remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives per year, and now manage over 16,000 hours of video using VARS. The software platform was expressly designed for adoption by other institutions and it was released as open-source software in 2005. More information, as well as a VARS demonstration application, can be obtained at http://vars.sourceforge.net. This talk will present an overview of VARS including its capacity for archiving and retrieving image-based data, and the scope to interface it with other external data sources. Its functionality will be illustrated using some local imagery collected by CSIRO off SE Australia, and some of the spectacular high definition imagery collected by MBARI off California. Brian is visiting CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research courtesy of a Frolich Fellowship.

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Location:
CSIRO = Marine Laboratories Auditorium, Castray Esplanade, Hobart

For further information, or to schedule a seminar, contact:
To schedule a seminar, contact:
Karen Wild-Allen, (Oceanographic seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5010
Thomas Kunz, (Biological seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
(03) 6232 5076
Jillian Enraght-Moony (seminar administrator) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5456
Sandra Zicus, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC (03) 6226 7888
Margaret Hazelwood, Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies (IASOS) University of Tasmania (03) 6226 2971

Last updated 21/12/07