Behavior · Video Annotation

Behavioral Annotator

A browser-based GUI for efficiently annotating animal behaviors in video recordings — frame by frame, with custom behavior labels — built to power our Animal Behavioral Dataset effort.

Launch Behavioral Annotator Runs 100% locally — your videos stay on your device

Developed by Dr. Can Tao, Senior Research Scientist. See the team page →

What it does

Turning raw behavior videos into labeled data is slow and tedious. The Behavioral Annotator streamlines it: load a video, step through it frame by frame, mark when each behavior starts and stops, and export clean annotations ready for analysis or model training. It runs entirely in your browser — no installation, and your videos never leave your computer.

Highlights

Runs entirely in the browser Frame-by-frame keyboard navigation Custom behavior labels Zoomable annotation timeline Auto-saves & exports JSON Private — nothing is uploaded

Quick start

Click Launch Behavioral Annotator, load a video, and use the keyboard shortcuts to step through frames and mark behavior segments. We welcome feedback, feature ideas, and contributors — background in web development, computer vision, or behavioral neuroscience is especially welcome. Reach out at guangwei.zhang@vcuhealth.org.