VIDEO VISUALIZATION FOR COMPACT PRESENTATION AND FAST BROWSING OF PICTORIAL CONTENT

Digital video archives are likely to be accessible on distributed netw orks which means that the data are subject to network congestion and b andwidth constraints, To enable new applications and services of digit al video, it is not only important to develop tools to analyze and bro wse video, view query results, and formulate better searches, but also to deliver the essence of the material in compact forms. Video visual ization describes the joint process of analyzing video and the subsequ ent derivation of representative visual presentation of the essence of the content, In this paper, we propose techniques to analyze video an d build a compact pictorial summary for visual presentation, A video s equence is thus condensed into a few images-each summarizing the drama tic incident taking place in a meaningful segment of the video, In par ticular, we present techniques to differentiate the dominance of the c ontent in subdivisions of the segment based on analysis results, selec t a graphic layout pattern according to the relative dominances, and c reate a set of video posters, each of which is a compact, visually ple asant, and intuitive representation of the story content, The collecti on of video posters arranged in temporal order then forms a pictorial summary of the sequence to tell the underlying story, The techniques a nd compact presentations proposed offer valuable tools for new applica tions and services of digital video including video browsing, query, s earch, and retrieval in the digital libraries and over the Internet.