Video Annotations as a Maritime Heritage Collaboration Tool: Case Study from the Battle of Midway ACUA Proceedings

While video surveys of maritime heritage sites are standard practice and provide dense characterization data, archaeological interpretation of these data is labor intensive. Video annotation platforms have been widely used as exploration tools in other ocean sciences, but are just beginning to be integrated into maritime heritage projects. This paper details a pilot annotation project using remotely operated vehicle video data collected on the aircraft carriers Akagi, Kaga, and USS Yorktown, lost during World War II’s Battle of Midway, using SeaTube, a web-based annotation platform developed by Ocean Networks Canada. SeaTube has several key features allowing any number of users to replay video, search for annotations of interest, and create time-stamped annotations. A search feature allows users to quickly navigate to the precise video frames of interest. Searchable and standardized annotation libraries on platforms like SeaTube can help solve the accessibility and interpretive challenges of maritime heritage video data.