1 Topic by litch09

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To start, I think that the latest improvements to Kinovea are superb. It is a testament to Joan and other contributors. I wish I could find time to do more to assist in the process.

I have a possible suggestion regarding potential outputs. At the present there are nice output formats in XHTML, MS_XML and ODF. These are useful for those of us who like to make meaningful measures (for example velocities, graphs of position etc). These can be implemented relatively easily using macros or other underlying code. However these outputs are numerical and don't provide much in the way of visual information.

For reporting purposes it is sometimes also nice to just have the key images output as well as any other information from those key images (mainly the comments and any particular measures). This can be used as a report without the need for having prior knowledge of how to use Kinovea or the need to actually have the video for reporting. At the present, it is of course possible to export key images as individual frames in a slideshow or as separate files, but you lose the information that might be valuable for reporting purposes.

Would it be conceivable that the ODF or XHTML formats might be able to have the keyframe images (including any measurements) and comments exported to them? This would be especially nice for sharing data with, for instance athletes, other coaches, clients etc. If it was in the XHTML format then this could be shared within web based applications.

I look forward to hearing other users views on this.

Glen

2 Reply by joan

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I agree 100% smile
Actually, there was once a "PDF export" function to export key images and comments  as a report, but it was later removed for various reasons.
Since then, I've added a more ambitious sub-project to the todo-list, to adress the shortcomings of the defunct PDF export function.
Ideally, it would be based on templates for maximum flexibility and easy customization, and the data be exported to something easily modifiable afterwards (like ODF).

There's a page on the developpement wiki about this sub-project here.
I don't find the time to fully get into this for now. It will later compete for priority with things like multi-point tracking, chronophotography and other effects, etc.
Also, lately I've come to think that this templates approach is maybe too complex/ambitious and a more straightforward (read: less flexible) approach should be preferred.

Existing reports done by hand would help in designing the feature though.

3 Reply by litch09

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I think a relatively flexible option that allows you to add or delete things is probably best. As long as the key features are output then users can do what they like and even make their own processes for generating their own templates. I understand that the drawing bits may provide the most difficulty, in terms of outputing these as objects instead of painting them on... but the painting option would be a good starting point even if the quality is reduced.

I'm happy to mock up a few ideas of what an output might like look like in ODF or similar if this helps.