Version history

Version 2.3.2.8: Features and bug fixes

1. Features: Image recognition now works on videos

  • Folder management using shortcuts to images. This is an experimental feature. Images can be now stored outside the image set by using a shortcut to those images – see the Timelapse Reference Guide: page 17. This means your Timelapse database files can be on your local computer and your images on a file server. Feedback appreciated!
  • Folder explorer in the Select menu and Custom select dialog. If you have many folders, this makes it easier to see, navigate and select a desired folder when compared to just having a list of folders.
  • New shortcut key: Ctl-S opens the Custom Select dialog as if you selected it from the Select menu.
  • Custom select dialog |Include all files in an episode now works over all selected data fields and / or recognitions.

2. Changes

EcoAssist is now called AddaxAI. The name change slowly happening (including its icons) over the next several versions. Not a big issue, as its exactly the same system. It may ask you to re-install it.

3. Various (mostly rare) bug fixes

  • CSV Export with space before dates wasn’t working – this is important if you often export and reimport data to / from a CSV file.
  • Custom select dialog |Include all files in an episode had several problems that have been repaired, including making it work outside of recognitions.
  • Creating successive duplicates sometimes caused Timelapse to crash
  • Rare bug: importing recognitions could fail when a folder name matches the beginning of the file name
  • Rare bug: Missing folders dialog could crash when selecting certain cells

Version 2.3.2.7: Critical bug fix

CRITICAL BUG FIX! The just released version 2.3.2.6 (announced on Dec 30, 2924) had a bug in the Choice menu – if you changed its value using the Copy Previous button or QuickPaste feature, you would see the field updated but the data would not actually be saved. If you had downloaded that new version in the last few days, replace it with this new version. Also check your choice data if you used those features. Much thanks to the astute person who noticed this.

Version 2.3.2.6: Image recognition on video!

1. Features: Image recognition now works on videos

  • Watch this quick video lesson on it . Details are in the updated Image Recognition Guide.
  • Timelapse now handles image recognition on videos. This is a big deal as it makes Timelapse (I think) the most efficient camera trap tagging system available for videos as well as images. What you will see:
    • bounding boxes appear atop recognized entities in the video as you play or scrub through it.
    • a Best button in the video player will jump to the frame with the highest confidence detection value. If the button is not present, it means nothing was detected in the video.
    • the Overview shows the video frame with the highest confidence detection value.
  • To generate the required image recognition file (see the Image Recognition Guide for details)
    • Use EcoAssist on the Recognition menu in Timelapse, which will now generate recognition data for any video files in your image set. If it says a new version of EcoAssist is available, use that one.
    • If you are using Dan Morris’ version of Megadetector instead of EcoAssist, download the latest version.
    • The Microsoft Pytorch version is (I am told) in the process of being updated.

2. Other enhancements and updates

  • Your video settings (Autoplay, repeat, speed, mute) are now remembered between Timelapse sessions.
  • The various guides have been updated to include image recognition on videos.
  • A few other minor enhancements not worth mentioning

3. Various (mostly rare) bug fixes

  • Fixed a nasty issue when merging (checking in) a database with no classifications into one that has classifications.
  • Fixed wrong thumbnails being displayed in the overview when using the Select’s Rank by confidence (also clarified which confidence value is being used)
  • A few other small bugs fixed, which were reported by Timelapse users
  • Note: The Choice menu has a minor bug: If it includes an S menu item and you select it, the S won’t appear in the Choice’s text box but is still entered as data. Not sure why this occurs but am working on it.

Version 2.3.2.5: Beta test / preview

This version was used by a limited audience for previewing and testing the video features that are deployed in version 2.3.2.6.

Version 2.3.2.4: Bug fixes / minor changes

1. Changes

  • Delete files: a new setting in Options | Preferences will delete files immediately instead of moving them to the DeletedFiles folder
  • Importing recognitions dialog improved
  • Progress bars improved for some actions
  • Importing CSV files now allow for Unix or Windows path separators

2. Bug fixes

  • QuickPaste and multiselect controls: fixed issues where data changes were not permanent
  • View menu: fixed issues where some items were not enabled
  • Copy to all : fixed issues where some values could not be copied
  • Custom select: fixed issues when selecting two time terms
  • Importing CSV files: fixed issues importing files that include metadata columns
  • A few other small bugs not worth describing.

Version 2.3.2.3: New web site + others

1. New Timelapse web site

  • New Timelapse website redone and reorganized for a nicer user experience. You are looking at it!
  • Help menu links now point to this new site

2. Edit |Duplicate records now has two versions

  • with current values fills the duplicate with original fields’ values,
  • with default values fills the duplicate with the defaults specified in the template

3. Bug fixes

  • MultiChoice control fixed, where commas were problematic
  • Number controls fixed, where using the increment/decrement ‘spinner’ while navigating wasn’t updating data
  • Edit | PopulateFieldWithGuid now works properly
  • Detections: rare bug when huge number of detections are updated
  • Template editor: fixed issue when changing a control’s type
  • A few other small bugs not worth describing.

Version 2.3.2.2: Image recognition integrated!

1. Image recognition

Recognition is now possible with just a few clicks. Using the Timelapse recognition menu, you can now easily download the EcoAssist / Megadetector image recognizer to your computer (with caveats for locked-down machines), run the recognizer on any folder, and import the recognition file to see all recognized entities. Over time, EcoAssist will include new wildlife models to allow true species classification for your geographic ecosystem. See the Timelapse Image Recognition Guide for details. Thanks to Peter van Lunteren for his efforts in making EcoAssist Timelapse-friendly.

2. CamtrapDP metadata standard supported.

Camtrap DP is an open standard advocated for uploading and sharing camera trap data (see publication and specifications). Using the TemplateEditor, you can now create a Camtrap DP template. After filling in your data with Timelapse, you can export it as a Camtrap DP-compliant set of files that can be uploaded to a Camtrap DP repository.

3. New Timelapse web site

  • New Timelapse website redone and reorganized for a nicer user experience. You are looking at it!
  • Help menu links now point to this new site

4. Other notable changes

  • Template editor now allows for (limited) changes to a data type e.g., from Choice to Note.
  • Deleting files: Now retains the folder structure when backing up deletions within the Delete folder.
  • Backup files: will only delete backups older than 2 weeks, allowing for data recovery in case of crashes.
  • Propagate from last non-empty value dialog: can now hide it by selecting ‘Don’t show again’
  • Select on Multichoice: allows you to search by including or excluding a choice term.
  • Duplicate record now has two versions, one that copies the original’s values, and the other that uses default values.
  • Timelapse icon has changed to a stylized camera trap
  • Timelapse manuals and web site updated to reflect most changes

5. Various bug fixes and performance tweaks

  • Bugs in CSV export, merging, display of duplicate records in custom select, etc. 

Version 2.3.2.0: Metadata standards + expanded data field types!

1. Folder levels, Folder data and Metadata standards for richer data

You can optionally associate data with your folders via folder levels and folder data. Collectively, this creates a hierarchical data structure that adds considerable richness to the data you can associate with your image set. For example, if you organize your image set as (say) Project/Station/Deployment sub–folders, you can define fill-in metadata fields for those folder levels as Project (e.g., Project name, Objectives…), Station (e.g., Latitude, Longitude…), and Deployment (e.g., Issues noted when servicing the camera…), and finally the usual tags associated with the images themselves.

Using the template editor, you can create your own in-house metadata standard, which Timelapse then displays as fill-in fields. Alternately, several government and institutional metadata standards will be included as boilerplates, which you can use as is, or which you can modify to serve your own purposes. Following a metadata standard allows government agencies, institutions, and researchers to share camera trap data in a meaningful way.

Defining a folder-level Timelapse metadata standard is optional. If you don’t do it, Timelapse will work as it normally does. If you do use it, you will have to structure your folder hierarchy to correspond with your folder levels. See the Timelapse Metadata Guide for details.

2. New data field types now available with input checking

  • When creating a template, you can now create additional specialized data fields:
    • MultiLine accepting longer multi-line text in a drop-down box,
    • Alphanumeric  accepting letters, numbers, _ and – only,
    • Various number formats, including Integer, Integer positive, Decimal, and Decimal positive,
    • MultiChoice menus, where 0, 1 or multiple items can be selected
    • Various date / time formats, including DateTime, Date, and Time.

3. Other notable changes

  • Folder data tab (a tab displaying your folder-levels for the current image and the data fields associated with that level)
  • File | Export all data to .csv files to export folder data as described above to csv files
  • Edit | Populate one or more Date/Time fields with Date/Time metadata
  • Edit | Populate a field with globally unique ids
  • Edit | Analyze folder structure (to see if it conforms with folder-level definitions)
  • Window menu changed to reflect a few alterations on how window arrangement can be configured
  • Template Editor various changes that allow you to create new types of data fields, and to specify folder levels and its associated folder data fields