Exporting as CSV

Created by David Farynyk
Last updated: Aug 26, 2020


Table of Contents



What is CSV?

CSV, or Comma Separated Value, is a frequently used format for storing and transferring numerical data.


In its most basic form, CSV data is stored in this format:

Many spreadsheet applications, databases, and programming languages support importing CSV files for processing, and once imported that data can frequently be viewed in a table:


Generating a CSV in ABC Tracker

  1. Load the video in ABC Tracker after performing setup and after running tracking
  2. After corrections loads, ensure that ABC Tracker is in "Manual Mode"
  3. Select the option to "Export as CSV"


CSV Options in ABC Tracker

When generating a CSV, the following options are available:

Consolidate ID numbers

If this box is checked, the ID numbers for the tracklets will be condensed so that they are numbered consecutively. If the box is unchecked, then the ID numbers that are displayed in ABC Tracker (see Visualization Properties Tab) will correspond to the ID numbers in the CSV file.

Include Column Names

If this box is checked, the first row the of the CSV output will contain the headings for the CSV data

id,frames,locX,locY,orientation,size1 (px),size2 (px),speed (px/s),Interpolated
1,1,1107.5,369.67,242.24,15.276,59.321,0,0

If left unchecked, this first line will not be included.

Location, Orientation, Size, and Speed

These checkboxes determine which data fields should be included in the CSV file.

Identify Interpolated Frames

Sometimes ABC Tracker uses linear interpolation to display the location data for an object's location in a particular frame. When linear interpolation is used, the "Interpolated" value is set to "1." When it is not used the output is "0."

This happens when ABC Tracker has location data for that object before and after a specific frame, but does not have precise data for that object in a particular frame. In that situation, ABC Tracker will use linear interpolation to connect the last known locations, and will indicate that linear interpolation was used to generate location data for that frame.

For example, from frames 81-135 the object with ID 4 used linear interpolation. The dashed line in frame 132 indicates that linear interpolation was used:

Removing Interpolation in a Track

Interpolation can be removed by performing a manual adjustment review in the interpolated span of frames, as this provides ABC Tracker with more data on the object's location during the interpolated span of frames.

Reading CSV Output from ABC Tracker

The illustrations below highlight data from tlet 1 frame 1 in this CSV

Location

The (x,y) locations are measured from the top left corner of the image to the center of the object

Orientation

The orientation is recorded using a clockwise image coordinate system

Therefore, for the sample CSV, the orientations of all objects are

Size

From the CSV, size1 represents the object's width, while size2 represents the object's height: