Kinovea 2023.1
2023-08-30
5 minutes read

I published Kinovea 2023.1 (download page). This version builds upon the previous improvements in the capture side of things and brings more usability tweaks for annotating videos.

Kinogram mode

This completely replaces the “Mosaic” feature. It is a separate mode of the player allowing interactive Kinogram creation.

To enter the Kinogram mode, use the menu Video > Kinogram. To exit the Kinogram mode right click in the image background and use the menu Exit Kinogram.

kinogram

When the Kinogram mode is activated the main viewport displays a collection of frames taken from the video spaced at regular intervals.

The playback controls are still active and the current frame is highlighted in blue. The drawing tools can be used to add annotations on top of the composite.

Using the left mouse button drag the tiles around to select which part of the original image should be displayed inside a particular cell.

đź’ˇ Tip: The Kinogram viewport is at the same aspect ratio as the original video, but the result can be saved at higher resolution and will not include the empty areas outside the Kinogram itself.

Parameters

The parameters of the Kinogram can be controlled by using right click and selecting the menu Configuration…

kinogram-config

  • Table : The number of columns and rows of the Kinogram
  • Crop size : the size of the area of the original images extracted into the cells of the Kinogram
  • Color : Color of the border between the cells

Toggles

Other options are available via the Options menu.

kinogram-toggles

  • Right to left : Enable this if the athlete is moving right-to-left. This configures the Kinogram to use the top-right cell as the first cell and progress right to left for each row.
  • Show border: whether to show the outline of the cells.
  • Auto-interpolate: when this option is enabled dragging the cell content will automatically interpolate the neighboring cells to match the motion. If this is disabled you can still trigger it manually by using the menu Action > Interpolate tiles.

Information labels

Small labels giving information about each cell can be shown by using the Labels menu.

kinogram-labels

  • Clock: shows the time of the image in the cell, taking into account the time origin and scale if configured
  • Frame number: shows the cell index within the Kinogram

Multi-time chronometer

The new chronometer tool maintains a collection of time sections and can show the cumulative time. This can be used for split times or when making multiple related measurements within the same video, where previously we had to add separate chronometer objects.

This is a separate tool from the old Chronometer but it replaces it and the old one has been removed from the interface. For taking a single time it should behave the same.

multi-chronometer

This tool is designed to work like a physical chronometer when initially annotating the times, with start/stop/split commands, but also has extra functions to come back and edit the in and out point of each time section.

To start or stop a section use the F5 shortcut (menu “Action: Start” and “Action: Stop”). To create a split point, which stops the current time section and restarts a new one on the same frame, use the F6 shortcut (menu “Action: Split”)

Other features of this tool include:

  • Moving in and out points of the time sections around
  • “Locking” the tool, meaning it won’t react to the F5 or F6 shortcuts, allowing another Chronometer object to receive them without interference.
  • Naming the time sections.
  • Adding “tags” to the time sections, for example to identify “left” or “right” foot for a particular section.
  • Showing an extra column with the cumulative time.

Key images management

Each key image now has its own color. They can be moved in time by dragging them onto the main timeline.

timeline

In the preferences, under Drawings > Presets, you’ll find a collection of presets for key frames, that can be bound to keyboard shortcuts. This let you insert a key image with a custom name and color instantly.

A side panel was added and the comments have moved there. In the future there will be more tabs inside this panel.

timeline

Export

Spreadsheet export

For scientists and researchers: the spreadsheet export was completely re-written to be more exhaustive and target more modern versions of Calc and Excel.

There is also a new JSON export if you want to parse the data into your own programs. Plus trajectory and chronometer specific CSV exporters.

spreadsheet-export

Document export

For coaches creating reports: it is now possible to export a document with the key images and the attached comments, to prepare a report.

The default format is Markdown but by installing Pandoc (open source software) and telling Kinovea where it is installed you can export to .docx or .odt.

The export is kept simple on purpose so you can tweak the formatting and style in the target application before creating a PDF.

document-export

Quality of life improvements

  • Save vertically stacked videos and images.
  • Sort files by name, date or size in the explorer.
  • Support for undo/redo of drawing manipulation.
  • The drawings are rendered in the magnifier area.
  • The coordinate system can be added in Capture.
  • A new status bar in Capture indicates the state of recording.

Feedback

Please post your feedback, bug reports, usability issues, feature suggestions, etc. on the forum in the following thread.


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