Annotation geometries
The shapes the work is actually drawn in, ported from manthano.ai/annotation-services/. The catalogue above says what a task is; this says what an annotator draws, which is the level most briefs and most searches are written at.
- 2D box annotation
- Rectangles around each instance. The cheapest geometry per object and the right one when position and rough extent are enough.
- Polygon annotation
- An outline that follows the object's actual edge. More expensive per object than a box and worth it when the box would be mostly background, as it is for anything long, thin or irregular.
- Lines annotation
- Polylines along continuous features: lane markings, cables, seams, pipes. Cheaper than a mask and more useful than a box for anything whose length matters and whose width does not.
- Point annotation
- Single coordinates, for counting and for keypoints such as joints or landmarks. Fast, and the only sensible geometry when objects are too small or too dense to outline.
- Lidar 3D box annotation
- Oriented cuboids in a point cloud, with heading. The standard geometry for anything that has to know how a vehicle or object is turned, not just where it is.
- Lidar pixelwise annotation
- Every point in the cloud classified individually. The most expensive geometry we offer and the one that supports drivable-surface and terrain work that boxes cannot express.
- 3D box annotation
- Cuboids in depth or stereo data where a full lidar sweep is not available.
- Video annotation
- Any of the above tracked across frames with consistent instance identity, which is the part that makes video cost more than the equivalent number of stills.