CATCH image annotation test page

First steps towards an web based image annotation system

The annotations are drawn using DHTML. To keep it simple, the annotations cannot be edited online, but only viewed.

Step 1

The page is local (html), but could be generated by server script.
The image is local and the annotation data is hardcoded in script section of the page.

Step 2

Instead of having the annotation data hardcoded in script section of the page
The data wil be read from a local XML file.

Step 3 (opens in a new window)

Use AJAX, instead of a local XML file.
The server searches for the annotation and returns the annotations found.

Futher development

Any serious image annotation system would allow for create, delete and editing of annotations. Also, instead of directly reading an XML-file on the server, an XML database should be used for querying.

For the interactive part of the annotation process (drawing) a Java applet has already been implemented.
The applet can be tested here.
The drawing could also be done by DHTML using VML or SVG for the graphics, but building an applet was much easier for us because the Java platform is stable and a lot of good development tools are available.