AnnoteImage

Image Markup Language (IML) tool

Overview

AnnoteImage is a Java tool for creating IML, an XML format for storing textual annotations to images. The annotation model is one of outlined regions, identified by labels, and colored 'strings' and 'pins'. The IML schema also allows for some limited metadata about the annotations. IML was based on an existing lisp-like format used in our web-based interactive anatomy atlases.

A brief AnnoteImage tutorial is available for use with the online AnnoteImage WebStart demo (requires Java), or a ZIP file of AnnoteImage is available from the SIG downloads page.

Ontology Term Integration

Standardized terminology ("Wall of Abdomen" versus "Abdominal wall") has been a challenge for anatomical image annotation. AnnoteImage includes integrated support to search or browse for official class names from the FMA Ontology using Protégé. AnnoteImage with integrated support for the FMA is available from the SIG downloads page.

However, this requires a local copy of the FMA, so recently as part of our Ontology Views Project we have developed an experimental version of AnnoteImage that instead queries a Semantic Web Service without the need for end users to write queries. This is also simpler for end users who do not need to worry about installing or configuring the FMA. If you have Java installed, you can run AnnoteImage WebStart now.

Publications