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Free Text Search

Free text search is a versatile tool that allows you to search for objects in videos based on text input (currently in English). Multiple attributes can be combined in a single query, see below for examples.

  • Do not use negation in the query text; i.e. "person not sitting" will not produce correct results.
  • Combine multiple attributes in a single query to get more accurate results.
  • Make sure to pick the object type corresponding to your query text to get the desired results; i.e. if your query is "stationary car next to a bicycle", use the Car and Bicycle object types.

Example free text queries

  • "person sitting and looking at their phone"
  • "blonde woman entering a building"

Prerequisites

Note that, currently, live analysis for RTSP streams cannot be used with Generic Object Search.

Setup

  1. Select one or more videos from your workspace Click +Set up New Query.

  2. Select Free Text Search from the list of query types.

Quick start

You can quickly set up a Free Text Search by typing a query text click Run Query to start the analysis immediately or Save & Exit to save the query for later.

The query will run with all parameters set to their default values:

  • Person object type
  • Output: top 40 results
  • Time frame: from Earliest to Latest.

1. Query Name

Give your query a name to better identify it. A description can also be added (optional).

2. Object Detection Filter

Videos

The thumbnail image(s) of the previously chosen videos is displayed here.

Time interval

Time interval

Set the time frame for the query.

  • Earliest: Run the query from the time shown here (set during video registration as the beginning timestamp of the video).
  • Latest: Run the query until the time shown here (set during video registration as the end timestamp of the video).
  • Set custom: You can select a custom start and end date and time to run the query on. Type the desired date and time or select them by clicking the calendar icon.

Object types

Object types

Select one or multiple object types you want to search for - Person is selected by default. Select a category, then click the dropdown menu to see the list of available object types for the selected object category.

Note that the object type selected here needs to match the object type in the query text.

3. Free Text Search

Free text search

Enter the text you want to search for in the videos. The search is case-insensitive.

4. Top K

Set the number of results with the highest confidence value you want to receive (40 by default). Accordingly by default, the top 40 results are displayed.

Results

All done - Clicking Save & Run will immediately start the analysis and opens the Result screen of this query. Alternatively, clicking Save & Exit saves the query without running it.