Reviewing Engine Detected Heads, Persons, and Objects
Applying User Defined Regions (UDRs)
Redacting Audio
Previewing and Redacting Your File
Downloading Your Redacted File
Overview
Veritone Redact allows you and your agency to produce a fully redacted audio or video file by running your native file against our head, person and object detection, as well as audio transcription engines. Once complete, you can apply any manual redaction as needed before exporting your fully redacted media.
Video Tutorial
Uploading Media Files
Upon logging in, click ‘Upload Media’ to upload media files into Redact.
If you have folders enabled, you will first need to create a folder and request in order to upload media.
The File Picker will appear, allowing you to drag-and-drop your files or browse to choose a file for upload from your local computer.
A Setting Profile is applied to your file upon upload. You can use the Veritone default profile or utilize one of the Setting Profiles your agency has created, by selecting it from the dropdown menu while uploading media. Next, check the box next to each processing option that you'd like to run:
Choose "Run Head and Object Detection" to automatically detect heads, license plates, laptops, and notepads in videos.
Choose "Run Person and Object Detection" to automatically detect an entire person (rather than just a head), for redaction, as well as license plates, laptops, and notepads in videos.
Choose "Run Transcription" to produce an English transcript for your file's audio, which is used to apply audio redactions. If your media does not have audio (for example, surveillance camera footage), you can simply leave this unselected.
Once uploaded, click on the newly-created video tile on the homepage to open the file to begin the redaction process. If folders are enabled, the file will appear in your Request’s input folder.
Reviewing Detected Heads, Persons, and Objects
Once the head, person and object detection process completes, your video tab will show all detections picked up by our engines. Detections with a thumbnail are called detection groups and refer to an instance where an object (whether a head, notepad, UDR, etc.) has a bounding box around it for the duration of detection. A detection group can contain detection segments, which are detections our engine perceives to be the same (ie, a laptop detected throughout the file). To view these, click the down arrow to the right of a group’s time stamp. You can also create custom detection groups. For more information, please visit our article:Detection Groups.
Enable all Head/Object Detection results by selecting the checkbox below the Detect Objects button.
Once all results are enabled, deselect any false positive/unnecessary redactions by clicking on the bounding box within the media player. From here, you can uncheck the correlated detection group or segment in the Video tab. This will remove the redaction from your file.
Be sure to click the Save button at the bottom on the screen to save your work.
Creating User-Defined Regions (UDRs)
For instances where our engine missed an object, whether because it was out of frame or simply an object we don’t detect (ie, a cellphone), you can apply a manual redaction, referred to as a User Defined Region (UDR). Begin drawing a bounding box by positioning your cursor in the desired area in the media player and then hold left-click while dragging with your mouse until a yellow bounding box appears around the desired area.
Static UDRs are objects on screen that need to be redacted for a set period or the entire length of the video. Start by drawing the UDR directly on the media player using the steps above and then select the menu in the upper left corner (indicated by the icon of the bounding box) and select Stick to Video. Alternatively, you can select your UDR and then drag and extend your UDR by using the gray handlebars in the timeline for a desired length of time, or select ‘Track Object’ from the UDR menu which ideally tracks a stationary object on screen forward and backward, like CCTV footage, when there’s no dramatic shift of the object.
Live Tracking UDRs are used for heads, persons, or objects on screen that need to be redacted as they move across the screen while the video plays forward. Create your bounding box over the desired area of the file. Double-click on the UDR (a dashed line will appear on the perimeter of the box), this will "lock" the UDR to your mouse cursor. Press and hold the right arrow key to play the video forward frame by frame. Follow the object or head along with your cursor for as long as necessary. Once you're finished, double-click the UDR to unlock your mouse and save your newly created redaction.
Continue the process of drawing and extending UDRs until you've drawn bounding boxes around all of the areas that require additional redaction.
Be sure to click the Save button once complete.
Redacting Audio
Click the "Audio" tab in the right panel.
In the search bar, enter keywords or phrases that you'd like to find in the transcript and its corresponding audio and hit Enter on your keyboard.
Right click any of the highlighted search results in the transcript to redact a specific instance or all instances of the found keyword or phrase.
Alternatively, you can highlight any portion of text in the transcript by left-clicking, holding and dragging your mouse. Then, right-click on this selection to redact the highlighted text.
Finally, click into the audio timeline itself on the left side of the screen. From there, you can enter the exact start and end time of the audio that you would like redacted.
Be sure to click the Save button at the bottom of the screen to save your work.
Tip: You can also add a note to any audio redaction by right-clicking the redacted text and selecting the "Edit Note" option.
Generating and Downloading a Redacted Copy of the File
To preview the results of your redactions, utilize the various preview options located on the bottom left corner of the Editor page. Note - By selecting blackfill, and clicking the play button on the media player, you can easily ensure that objects, UDRs, and audio are redacted as desired.
If needed, make any additional adjustments.
After you've made your changes and you're ready to generate the redacted version of the file, click the Redact File button.
Tip: Generating the redacted version of the file will take a variable amount of time, depending on the duration of the file and the number of redactions.
Downloading Your Redacted File
Once the process to generate the redacted version of the file has completed, click the "Redacted Files" tab at the top of the screen.
Then, click Download All to save a zip file of the redacted file and an audit log to your local computer. You can also download just the mp4 by clicking Download Media or just the audit log by clicking Download Audit Log.
You can also download a copy of your redacted transcript by selecting the Download Redacted Transcript. This is NOT included when you select Download All.
PRO TIP: If you don’t need the audit log, it’s recommended to simply Download Media to reduce download time.
Addendum: Keyboard Shortcuts
To increase the speed and efficiency of the redaction process, you can use keyboard shortcuts instead of your mouse within the Redact application. A quick reference to these shortcuts can be accessed by clicking the keyboard icon at the top of the screen. We've also included this quick reference below.
