In this paper, a fuzzy representation of visual content is proposed, which
is useful for the new emerging multimedia applications, such as content-bas
ed image indexing and retrieval, video browsing and summarization. In parti
cular, a multidimensional fuzzy histogram is constructed for each video fra
me based on a collection of appropriate features, extracted using video seq
uence analysis techniques. This approach is then applied both for video sum
marization, in the context of a content-based sampling algorithm, and for c
ontent-based indexing and retrieval. In the first case, video summarization
is accomplished by discarding shots or frames of similar visual content so
that only a small but meaningful amount of information is retained (key-fr
ames). In the second case, a content-based retrieval scheme is investigated
, so that the most similar images to a query are extracted. Experimental re
sults and comparison with other known methods are presented to indicate the
good performance of the proposed scheme on real-life video recordings. (C)
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