ELAN is a free, open-source multimedia annotation tool that allows users to annotate audio, video, and text files with synchronized tiers. It supports multiple tiers, participants, and languages. ELAN is currently working on new modes like interlinearization mode and Simple-ELAN for basic transcription. ELAN also integrates with some automatic annotation tools and web services to help with tasks like segmentation and labeling, while still primarily being a tool for manual annotation.

1. The Language Archive – Max Planck Ins7tute for Psycholinguis7cs
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
ELAN, a Mul+media Annota+on Tool
Han Sloetjes
han.sloetjes@mpi.nl
DTAMS 2016, CoEDL, Melbourne, Australia, 1-3 June 2016

2. General introduc+on
• Mul7-7er, mul7-speaker, 7me-linked annota7on of
audio and video recordings
• Annota7ons are stored in XML files (EAF)
• Available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux
• Open source, (mainly) wriYen in the Java
programming language
• Current version 4.9.4
• hYp://tla.mpi.nl/tools/tla-tools/elan/
• Free download, no registra7on required

3. General introduc+on
• Mul7-7er
• Mul7-par7cipant
• Time-linked
• Tiers can be part of a 7er hierarchy

4. General introduc+on

5. User communi+es
Language documenta7on
• Toolbox in/out
• FLEx in/out
• Interlinear Text out
• Praat in/out
Sign Language
• 2 - 6 videos
• Many (>50) 7ers
• External (mul7lingual)
controlled vocabularies
Gesture/mul7modality
• Annota7ons from overlaps,
merge etc.
• Interrater reliability
• Cross-referencing
Behavioural research,
other…
• Segmenta7on
• Labelling
• Csv in/out
• Sub7tles
• Simple sta7s7cs

6. Working modes, perspec+ves
Different working modes,
geared to a specific task
– Annota7on mode
– Synchroniza7on mode
– Segmenta7on mode
– Transcrip7on mode

7. In prepara+on: Interlineariza+on mode
• Ini7al work started several years ago
– At that 7me it was planned as a combined effort with LEXUS
– With an intermediate component LEXAN: a plugin framework for NLP
type of modules
– With a specialized text oriented user interface in ELAN
• LEXUS is no longer ac7vely developed
• Now we are working on a basic lexicon component as part of
ELAN
• Restructuring and extending the LEXAN framework
• First (beta) version should be available later this year

8. New mode / applica+on: Simple-ELAN
• Transcrip7on on the level of
scenes or speaker turns
• Stripped down to the most
basic func7ons
• Only a few menu items and
GUI elements
• Can also be used to
manually align exis7ng
(legacy) text to audio or
video
Developed in collabora7on with and supported by CoEDL

9. New mode / applica+on: Simple-ELAN
• Segment and label
simultaneously
• New line = new segment:
hiing the Enter key creates
a new annota7on with the
current text
• Work on a single 7er at a
7me (s7ll possible to switch
to or select another 7er)
• Reads and writes EAF

10. Manual vs (semi-)automa+c annota+on
• ELAN is a tool for manual annota7on
• Ini7a7ves towards automa7c segmenta7on and
labelling based on paYern recogni7on
• Silence recognizer –
segmenta7on into silence
vs non-silence segments
• Forced alignment,
text-to-speech alignment

11. Manual vs (semi-)automa+c annota+on
Two projects, AVATecH & AUVIS, partnering with
Fraunhofer ins7tutes (HHI & IAIS)
• Video based processing:
– Human mo7on analysis and annota7on
• Head & Hand Tracking
• Based on skin color detec7on
• Audio based processing
– Speech vs non-speech segmenta7on
– Speaker diariza7on
The recognizers are “integrated” as (client for) web services

12. Manual vs (semi-)automa+c annota+on
• In some projects 40% – 50% efficiency improvement
in the segmenta7on phase
• But in other projects results too poor to be useful
• Depending much on recording seing and quality
A video recognizer based on the NEUROGES coding system performed “fair/
moderate” on the Landis & Koch classifica7on for some gesture types (phasic,
repe77ve, irregular) where human raters performed “substan7al”.

13. Client for web services
• Use of web services from ELAN
– WebLicht
– WebMAUS
– TypeCraq (in progress)
– ISOcat (www.isocat.org)
– CLARIN service for ISO 639-3 language codes

14. Interoperability
• FLEx
– Time and speaker informa7on now retained
• Toolbox
• Praat
– TextGrid files with Interval and Point 7ers
• Transcriber (import only)
– support for the new file format (.tag) yet to be added
• CHAT (CLAN tools)
• .csv, tab-delimited text
• Sub7tle text formats (.srt, .stl, .xml (Timed Text))
• Interlinear Text
• Tradi7onal Transcript Text (“CA style”)
• Theme

15. Thank you
Contributors:
• MPI
– Eric Auer
– Hennie Brugman
– Greg Gulrajani
– Alex Klassmann
– Alex König
– Markus Kramer
– Kees Jan van de Looij
– Marc Pippel
– Albert Russel
– Olaf Seibert
– Han Sloetjes
– Aarthy Somasundaram
– Harriet Spenke
• Radboud University
– Mark Blokpoel
– Micha Hulsbosch
– Jeffrey Lemein
• Other
– Larwan Berke
– Chris7an Chanard
– Christopher Cox
– Ouriel Grynzspan
– Bob Kuczewski
– Ingo Lütkebohle
– Tom Myers
– Mar7n Schickbichler
– SIDGrid team
– Coralie Villes
– ...