Product Overview of Kinovea
Kinovea is an open-source video analysis software designed primarily for studying human motion, but it also caters to a wide range of applications including sports analysis, laboratory research, and industrial automation.
Core Missions
Kinovea is organized around four core missions:
- Capture: Allows users to record video streams from various sources, including webcams, high-speed cameras, and other UVC compliant cameras. It supports multiple camera configurations, enabling simultaneous capture from several cameras.
- Observation: Provides a robust video player based on FFMpeg libraries, which can read almost any video format. Users can browse videos, favorite folders, and cameras through an integrated file explorer.
- Annotation: Enables users to enrich videos with various annotations such as labels, numbers, lines, arrows, curves, multi-line paths, rectangles, markers, and freehand drawings. These annotations are vector-based, saved in XML files, and can be modified or imported onto other videos.
- Measurement: Offers advanced measurement tools, including angle measurements, chronometers, and trajectory tracking. Users can calculate linear and angular kinematics, visualize angle-angle diagrams, and track the evolution of multi-point objects.
Key Features
- Video Playback and Slow Motion: Kinovea allows playback at various speeds, from 2% to 200% of the initial speed, making it ideal for analyzing high-speed recordings in slow motion.
- Image Adjustments and Transformations: Users can perform image transformations such as rotation, zoom, mirroring, deinterlacing, and fixing aspect ratios. Additional adjustments include color, brightness, and contrast settings.
- Comparison and Synchronization: The software supports comparing and synchronizing videos with heterogeneous framerates. It also allows overlaying two videos on top of each other and creating synchronized composite videos.
- Advanced Drawing and Annotation Tools: Includes tools for drawing lines, arrows, freehand pencil marks, and custom drawings. Users can add rich text comments to key images and use spotlight or magnifier tools to draw attention to specific areas.
- Custom Tools and Automation: Kinovea features a powerful custom tool framework using XML files, allowing users to create and modify advanced tools such as bike-fit, archery, or human model tools.
- Recording and Export Options: Users can configure recording settings to save compressed or uncompressed video, and even record raw BAYER frames. The software supports exporting individual frames, key images, video slideshows, and videos with pauses on key images.
- Multi-Language Support and Community Contributions: The user interface is available in 26 languages, thanks to contributions from international users. Kinovea is open-source, with publicly available source code, and encourages community feedback and feature requests.
Applications
Kinovea is versatile and can be used in various fields:
- Sports: To track athletes’ movements and improve technique.
- Laboratory Research: For analyzing images from microscopes.
- Industrial Automation: To debug mechanical problems using slow-motion analysis.
In summary, Kinovea is a comprehensive video analysis tool that offers a wide range of features for capturing, observing, annotating, and measuring motion in videos, making it a valuable resource for both professional and educational purposes.