DataPoint is an inexpensive alternative to VideoPoint™ and World in Motion™ for performing 2-dimensional motion analysis in the classroom.

With DataPoint you can:

• Step through any standard AVI video file file frame by frame.
  
• Extract frame size and frame rate data from the file.
  
• Track objects in each frame with a crosshair mouse cursor. 
  
• Click the mouse button to write t,x,y coordinate data to a comma-delimited text file ready to be imported into your favorite spreadsheet or graphical analysis application.
  
• Save individual frames as bitmapped (.bmp) files.

Screen Shot

Click on image for larger version.

User Guide
Really doesn't need one,
but some helpful instructional videos
are available from the TAMU website
(Thanks, Dr. Bryan) .

I'm pleased that so many students, educators, and researchers at high schools, colleges, and universities all over the world (Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, New Zealand, Australia, New Guinea, South Africa, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.A.) find DataPoint useful in their work.

While I hope to continue improving the program, DataPoint is currently at version 0.62 with only the bare minimum of features.  I wrote DataPoint to give my students an inexpensive video analysis tool, but without the bells and whistles of other programs, which they might be tempted to use thoughtlessly at the expense of developing analytical and critical thinking skills.  

Future revisions to DataPoint will include frame zooming, multiple-object tracking, and support for other video formats (e.g., QuickTime^TM, MPEG, etc.) and other operating systems (Mac^TM and Linux^TM).

Please respect my conditions on the use of DataPoint.

DataPoint is copyrighted software. DataPoint may only be used for not-for-profit, non-commercial, educational purposes. 

I offer DataPoint to Physics students and the Physics education community free of charge. 

If you use DataPoint, please notify me and let me know how it serves your needs and how it can be improved. 

DataPoint may not be used for any commercial or profit-making purpose, nor may it be sold, nor may it be bundled with another product for sale.

Thanks.

"Bouncing Ball"

"Cannot open file _frame.bmp"

DataPoint expects to the find the frame data in a particular place in the avi file. When DataPoint extracts a video frame from the avi file, it stores the frame data in a temporary file named _frame.bmp (the filename begins with the underscore). When DataPoint closes, it deletes _frame.bmp.

If you get the "Cannot open file _frame.bmp" error message, keep DataPoint open and search for the file _frame.bmp. The file _frame.bmp should be in the same directory as the video file. If you can't find _frame.bmp, it means DataPoint can't find the frame data in the avi file. In that case, it can't create _frame.bmp, and it gives the error message.

DataPoint was not intended to be a particularly intelligent program, but it should work for any "standard" avi file. I've noticed that some video-capture programs do not create standard avi files. E.g., the avi files at the TAMU website were recorded with a JVC^TM digital video camera that seems to have used a proprietary Sony Digital^TM codec (FOURCC code DVSD). DataPoint does not work with Quicktime (.mov) video files.

To see how DataPoint handles (or does not handle) standard and non-standard avi files, use DataPoint to open the following videos of the Pacific Ocean surf. I recorded the non-standard file with a Fuji^TM digital camera. I used AVIedit to convert the non-standard file to a standard avi file.

Non-Standard avi file (2.5 MB)

Standard avi file (3.7 MB)

To use avi files that are non-standard or use proprietary codecs, there are two alternatives:

• Find another video-capture program that creates standard avi files (if your video-capture program uses compression, try creating an "uncompressed" avi file) or
• Find an avi file conversion program that can convert your non-standard avi files to standard avi files. I don't endorse any particular video editing application, but one shareware program with which I've had some success is AVIedit. Unfortunately, as of 10/20/2008 AVIedit does not include the DVSD codec.