Free Video Analysis Tools

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I was looking through a PD calendar and noticed a session for Dartfish which is great software but a bit expensive for schools. so I decided to see if there was any free/open source tools around.

Video analysis tools are used to play with video to help visualise things that happen within a video recording. You can use video analysis for several learning areas. The main one is sport and PE where a teacher/coach can analyse technique, body flow and pick up issues that might be effecting performance. It can also be used to analyse game/team play.

On a more scientific level, video analysis can be used for physics experiments - particularly to track objects and measure time, distance and therefore acceleration / deceleration.

Finally video analysis is great for the arts, for both dance and drama. You could also give it to a student in visual or media arts class to see what creative uses they could find.

I came across these and I hope someone finds them useful,



http://www.kinovea.org/en/ (MAC and PC)

http://www.cabrillo.edu/~dbrown/tracker/ - more for physics and science. (Mac and PC)

http://video4coach.com/ - both skill capture and skill Spector are free (PC only)


and if you need It - a video transcoder – for changing formats

http://handbrake.fr/

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Dance and Sing

Do you like to dance and sing - of course you do!

I've just found two open source projects that let you do just that.

Stepmania - If you have ever been to Japan or walked past a Timezone (for those of you who live in Perth) you would have seen the "Dance Dance Revolution" coin-op game that is really popular - this is an open source version which is insane. Imagine this on a projector in your in your classroom and all the kids stepping out to the beat- you can hook up an inexpensive playstation mat and have one student leading them all. This is great for fitness, co-ordination and music (moving to a beat).

UltraStarDeluxe - Karaoke (empty orchestra) This is similar to the PS2 Singing program "sing star" - This allows you to create your own karaoke track or download them from the website - sing along and try and mach the pitch and timing of the song. Great for music/singing classes and making them more interactive and involving technology.

The great thing is as these are open source so you can give copies to your students without falling foul of the copyright police.