A Dynamic Multimedia Annotation Tool

摘要

Annotating image collections is crucial for different multimedia applications. Not only this provides an alternative access to visual information but it is a critical step to perform the evaluation of content-based image retrieval systems. Annotation is a tedious task so that there is a real need for developing tools that lighten the work of annotators. The tool should be flexible and offer customization so as to make the annotator the most comfortable. It should also automate the most tasks as possible. In this paper, we present a still image annotation tool that has been developed with the aim of being flexible and adaptive. The principle is to create a set of dynamic web pages that are an interface to a SQL database. The keyword set is fixed and every image receives from concurrent annotators a set of keywords along with time stamps and annotator IDs. Each annotator has the possibility of going back and forth within the collection and its previous annotations. He is helped by a number of search services and customization options. An administrative section allows the supervisor to control the parameter of the annotation, including the keyword set, given via an XML structure. The architecture of the tool is made flexible so as to accommodate further options through its development.