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Analyze footage

The Analyze Footage tab is where recordings actually get processed. A three-way mode switch at the top -- Project | Video File | Camera -- changes the whole tab. All three modes share the same processing engine and the same Inference Settings (the dialog is on every mode); what differs is what gets processed and how the outputs are tracked.

The Analyze Footage home screen with no project open

  • Project -- open a study project and run the whole batch. This is where you spend almost all your time.
  • Video File -- analyze a single video, no project, no metadata. A quick look at one recording.
  • Camera -- record and analyze live from a webcam.

Project mode

Project mode runs a study project (see Projects and sessions). Open a project and the tab fills with:

  • Preflight checklist -- a readiness check that runs every time you open a project (and on Re-run preflight). Green is fine, yellow is a warning you can usually ignore, red must be fixed before Run. Every message is explained in the tutorial's troubleshooting table.
  • Runs table -- one row per recording, with participants, condition, status, and a resume plan (what Run will do to each row). Planned sessions show as awaiting recording.

  • Study setup panel -- study-wide settings: the pipeline preset in use, a project-wide participant map, and an Anonymize Footage toggle (blurs or blacks out faces in the annotated video and heatmap backgrounds).

    The Study setup panel expanded

Press ▶ Run on the project card to process the batch. The output panel (bottom right) has four tabs:

  • Log -- the line-by-line trace of the batch.
  • Charts -- per-run phenomena charts for a selected run.
  • Live -- a live dashboard of gaze statistics and phenomenon events while a run is processing.
  • Output CSVs -- a read-only viewer over a run's event and summary CSVs.

For the full study workflow -- preflight, running, resume, outputs -- follow the Run a Study tutorial.

Video File mode (quick analysis)

For a fast look at a single recording with no project and no metadata, switch to Video File mode:

  1. Browse... to the file, or drag the file onto the tab.
  2. The output folder is prefilled next to the source (editable).
  3. Press Analyze.

Live charts fill the left pane while it processes, and the output folder gets the same CSVs a project run produces -- because both modes use the same engine and the same Inference Settings, the numbers match a project run out of the box.

🎬 Demo coming soon -- SHOT:quick-analysis

Drag a clip onto Video File mode, the output folder auto-fills, press Analyze, live charts fill the left pane.

Camera mode

Camera mode records and analyzes live from a webcam:

  1. Refresh lists your cameras by name. Enumeration happens on demand when you press Refresh -- by design, not at startup.
  2. Optionally fill the Session details (participants, session, notes) so an ad-hoc recording still lands with proper metadata.
  3. Start Camera records and analyzes live; Stop finalizes the outputs.

A camera quick-run writes a <run_id>_session.yaml sidecar next to its outputs. That sidecar carries the session's metadata, so a recording captured this way can be imported into a project later rather than being a dead end.

macOS camera permission appears on Refresh

Because MindSight only enumerates cameras when you press Refresh, the macOS camera-permission prompt appears there -- the first time you press it -- rather than at launch. If the camera list looks empty, check System Settings > Privacy & Security > Camera and confirm MindSight is allowed.

Two prompts worth knowing

  • Unsaved study setup. If you change study setup and try to leave without saving, MindSight asks first so you do not lose the change.
  • Zero captured frames. If a run ends up with no frames captured (a dead camera, an unreadable file), MindSight warns rather than writing an empty output.

See also