Getting Started with Kinovea Motion Tracking Software

The directions below are meant as a quick start guide. More features and more details can be found in
the Help menu. The manual is actually really well-written, thus a great resource.
Step 0. Download the software from: kinovea.org. This is a free ware open source program provided by
an awesome research group at Univ. of British Columbia (good Pacific salmon too).
Step 1. Open Video. by navigating through Folders at top left. A movie frame should be displayed in
the main window.
Step 2a. Define frame rate of video. The software assumes a 30 Hz sampling rate, but if you use a HS
camera, you need to tell the software that! Choose Motion> High Speed Camera then enter the frame
rate. For instance our video was shot at 240 frames.
Step 2b. Set the output format of the time markers. This is handy later for exporting data in an easy to
use format. Choose Options> Time Markers Format and select Total milliseconds
Step 3. Define working zone. This allows you to trim the fat and get to the part of the movie where
the action is. You do this by clicking on/scrolling through the green colored bar beneath the main frame
(aptly titled Working zone). After selecting the working zone, be sure to lock it by clicking the tiny
icon reminiscent of a materlock at left.
Step 4. Measure time. Click on the stop watch icon on the toolbar on the lower left frame border. You
can scroll through frames until you find where you want to define t = 0. Once you get to this frame,
right click the stop watch and choose Start stopwatch
Step 5. Measure distances. Draw a line on the frame and then right click and choose Calibrate Measure.
Note that you must have some object in the frame to which you can reference actual distance!
Step 6. Track objects or body parts. Click the hand with the + sign, then right click on the frame and
choose Track Path Select a point or object that is feature rich/has high contrast. If need be you can
manually adjust tracked points.
Step 7. Export data to spreadsheet. Choose file> Export to spreadsheet Then choose the file format of
choice.
Step 8. Plot data. You can plot directly in excel. However, more powerful (though slightly less
convenient) is to plot in MATLAB. The best way to do this is copy and paste selected data in to matlab.

MATLAB Instructions
Launch matlab. In the main command window, define the variable that is an Npts x 3 matrix contiaing
your dta like this:
>> kinoveadata = [ copy and paste data here]; %note the square brackets

>> x = kinoveadata(:,1);
>> y = kinoveadata(:,2);
>> t = kinoveadata(:,3);
>> plot(t,x);
>> xlabel('Time (ms)');
>> ylabel('Vertical displacement (cm)')
>> title('Skateboard: underdamped oscillations')
Skateboard: tracking right foot
3

Vertical displacement (cm)

2.5

1.5

0.5

-0.5
0

200

400

600

800
1000
Time (ms)

1200

1400

1600

1800

Figure 1. Distance vs. time result for tracking right foot. The oscillations are not pretty except the first. But then look a bit
messierwhy?

Skateboard: tracking left foot

1.4

Vertical displacement (cm)

1.2

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

500

1000

1500
Time (ms)

2000

2500

3000

Figure 2. Tracking the left foot. Now the data look really messy...why? How good is the automatic tracking?