Top 5 Mistakes in Video Annotation Projects

Video annotation is a critical process for machine learning applications such as object detection, action recognition, and speech recognition. While annotation can be a tedious and time-consuming task, it's essential to avoid common mistakes that can lead to inaccurate or unreliable data. Here we discuss the basics of the process, along with the top five mistakes in video annotation projects and how to avoid them.

What is Video Annotation?

Video annotation is the process of manually labeling and tagging visual content in videos to create labeled datasets for machine learning applications. This process involves identifying and marking different objects, actions, or events in a video and associating them with appropriate labels. The labeled data generated through video annotation allows machine learning models to learn patterns and make predictions based on those patterns. Accurate and consistent video annotation is essential for creating high-quality datasets that can produce reliable and accurate machine learning models.

How is Video Annotation different from Image Annotation?

They are both processes of labeling visual content for machine learning applications, but there are a few key differences.

• Video annotation involves labeling objects, actions, and events that occur over time, whereas image annotation focuses on labeling objects present in a single static image. Video annotation requires the ability to track objects as they move, change shape or orientation, and interact with other objects in the video. Temporal information - data that changes over time - is a crucial aspect of video annotation that is not present in image annotation.
• Video annotation is also generally more complex as it involves annotating a larger amount of data that changes over time. This added complexity often requires more sophisticated annotation tools, techniques, and workflows. The level of detail required for video annotation is typically higher than for image annotation, as annotators need to capture subtle changes in motion and behavior.
• Video annotation can be more subjective than image annotation as there may be multiple valid interpretations of the same event or action in a video. This subjectivity can result in variability in the annotations, which can make it challenging to create reliable datasets. To address this issue, it is essential to establish clear annotation guidelines and procedures to ensure consistency and accuracy.

How to Avoid Mistakes in Video Annotation Projects

Video annotation projects are complex and prone to a few common mistakes that can affect the quality and accuracy of the annotations:

1. Inconsistent Annotation

Different annotators may annotate the same video differently, leading to conflicting labels. For example, consider an object detection task where annotators are asked to label objects in a video. One annotator might label a cat as a "cat" while another might label the same cat as a "pet." This inconsistency can result in inaccurate data, which can affect the performance of machine learning models.To avoid inconsistent annotation, it's crucial to provide clear guidelines, examples and training. This can ensure that everyone is on the same page and has a consistent understanding of the task. It's also essential to have a quality control process in place to identify and correct any inconsistencies.

• Quality Rubrics: These are a set of criteria and standards that define what constitutes accurate and high-quality annotations. They are used to evaluate the quality and consistency of annotations performed by human annotators.
• Gold Tasks: This is a perfectly annotated sample that lays the ground truth for annotators to compare against in future annotations.
• Error Penalties: These assign weights to different types of annotation errors. The penalties are designed to reflect the relative importance or severity of different types of errors and to incentivize annotators to avoid making them.

2. Lack of Contextual Understanding

Annotators may not have a complete understanding of the task, leading to incorrect annotations. For example, in an image recognition task, an annotator may not recognize the differences between a long sleeve shirt and a sweater because they live in a warm climate which leads to inaccurate classifications.To avoid this mistake, it's crucial to provide annotators with the necessary background knowledge to understand the task fully. For example, in a speech recognition task, annotators should be familiar with the accent or dialect they are annotating. At a minimum, annotators should have access to reference materials to avoid inaccurate annotations. For the highest quality annotations, companies should aim to have specialists or experts complete the annotation tasks.

3. Incorrect Labeling

Annotators may make mistakes, such as labeling an object with the wrong class or labeling an action with the wrong label. For example, in an action recognition task, an annotator may label a person walking as running.To avoid incorrect labeling, it's important to provide clear guidelines and examples. It's also essential to have a quality control process in place to identify and correct any mistakes in the annotations. It's helpful to have multiple annotators label each video to ensure accuracy and reliability.

4. Incomplete Annotation

Annotators may miss objects or actions in the video, leading to incomplete annotations. For example, in an object detection task, an annotator may miss an object that is partially obscured or out of frame.To avoid incomplete annotation, it's important to provide annotators with clear instructions on what to annotate and what to ignore. It's also helpful to have multiple annotators label each video to ensure that all objects and actions are identified. It's important to have a quality control process in place to identify and correct any missed annotations.

5. Biased Annotation

Annotators may have biases that affect their labeling decisions. For example, annotators may have a preference for or against certain regions, leading them to miss or mislabel objects or actions from those regions. For instance, if an annotator has a bias against urban areas, they may not accurately label an object or action that is commonly found in cities.To avoid biased annotation, it's important to provide training to annotators on the importance of unbiased labeling. It's also essential to have a diverse group of annotators to ensure that different perspectives are represented in the annotations. It's important to have a quality control process in place to identify and correct any biased annotations.How a video annotation partner helpsUsing a video annotation partner can be an effective way to avoid mistakes in the annotation process for machine learning. A professional video annotation partner, like Sama, can provide trained annotators with experience in the specific task at hand, ensuring that annotations are accurate, consistent, and unbiased. Video annotation companies can provide guidance and support throughout the annotation process, including the development of clear guidelines, quality control measures, and feedback on annotations.Partnering with a video annotation provider can also save time and resources, as they can provide scalable annotation services with a large team of experienced annotators, leading to a lower total cost of ownership. Overall, partnering with a video annotation provider can help ensure that the annotation process is accurate, efficient, and reliable, leading to more accurate and reliable machine learning models.Read our eBook on how to get quality ground truth labels for autonomous driving applications here.