Video summarization apparatus and method

• US 20070168864A1
• Filed: 12/29/2006
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Koji, Uehara, Tatsuya
• Application Number:
  US11/647,151
• Publication Number:
  US 20070168864A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/716
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/739 in form of a video summary, e.g. the video summary being a video sequence, a composite still image or having synthesized frames

Abstract

A video summarization apparatus stores, in memory, video data including video and audio, and metadata items corresponding to video segments included in the video data respectively, each of metadata items including keyword and characteristic information of content of corresponding video segment, selects metadata items including specified keyword from metadata items, to obtain selected metadata items, extracts, from video data, video segment corresponding to selected metadata items, to obtain selected video segments, generates summarized video data by connecting extracted video segments, detects audio breakpoints included in video data, to obtain audio segments segmented by audio breakpoints, extracts from video data, audio segments corresponding to extracted video segments as audio narrations, and modifies ending time of video segment in summarized video data so that ending time of video segment in summarized video data coincides with or is later than ending time of corresponding audio segment of extracted audio segments.

Claims

1. A video summarization apparatus comprising:

a first memory to store video data including video and audio;

a second memory to store a plurality of metadata items corresponding to a plurality of video segments included in the video data respectively, each of the metadata items including a keyword and characteristic information of content of corresponding video segment;

a selecting unit configured to select metadata items each including a specified keyword from the metadata items, to obtain selected metadata items;

a first extraction unit configured to extract, from the video data, video segments corresponding to the selected metadata items, to obtain extracted video segments;

a generation unit configured to generate summarized video data by connecting extracted video segments in time series;

a detection unit configured to detect a plurality of audio breakpoints included in the video data, to obtain a plurality of audio segments segmented by the audio breakpoints;

a second extraction unit configured to extract, from the video data, audio segments corresponding to the extracted video segments as audio narrations, to obtain extracted audio segments; and

a modifying unit configured to modify an ending time of a video segment in the summarized video data so that the ending time of the video segment in the summarized video data coincides with or is later than an ending time of corresponding audio segment of the extracted audio segments.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the each of the metadata items includes an occurrence time of an event occurred in corresponding video segment.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a narrative generation unit configured to generate a narrative of the summarized video data based on the selected metadata items; and

a speech generation unit configured to generate a synthesized speech corresponding to the narrative.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detection unit detects the audio breakpoints each of which is an arbitrary time point in a silent segment where magnitude of audio of the video data is smaller than a predetermined value.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detection unit detects the audio breakpoints based on change of speakers in audio of the video data.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detection unit detects the audio breakpoints based on a pause in an audio sentence or phrase of the video data.

7. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the second extraction unit extracts the audio segments each including the occurrence time included in each of the selected metadata items.

8. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the second extraction unit extracts the audio segments each including content except for the narrative by speech-recognizing each of the audio segments in the neighborhood of the each of the extracted video segments in the summarized video data.

9. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the second extraction unit extracts the audio segments each including content except for the narrative by using closed caption information in each audio segment in the neighborhood of the each of the extracted video segments in the summarized video data.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the modifying unit modifies a beginning time and the ending time of the video segment in the summarized video data so that the beginning time and the ending time of the video segment coincide with or includes a beginning time and the ending time of the corresponding audio segment of the extracted audio segment.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a sound volume control unit configured to set sound volume of each audio narration within corresponding video segment in the summarized video data including the video segment modified by the modifying unit larger than sound volume of audio except for the each audio narration within the corresponding video segment.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an audio segment control unit configured to shift temporal position for reproducing an audio segment of the extracted audio segments so that the temporal position lie within corresponding video segment in the summarized video data, when an ending time or a starting time of the audio segment of the extracted audio segments is later than an ending time of the corresponding video segment or earlier than a starting time of the corresponding video segment and length of the audio segment of the extracted audio segments is equal to or shorter than length of the corresponding video segment, and

wherein the modifying unit modifies the ending time of the video segment in the summarized video data, when the ending time of the corresponding audio segment of the extracted audio segments is later than the ending time of the video segment and length of the corresponding audio segment of the extracted audio segments is longer than length of the video segment.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising a sound volume control unit configured to set sound volume of each audio narration within corresponding video segment in the summarized video data including the video segment modified by the modifying unit and the audio segment of the extracted audio segments whose temporal position is shifted by the audio segment control unit larger than sound volume of audio except for the each audio narration within the corresponding video segment.

14. A video summarization method including:

storing video data including video and audio in a first memory;

storing, in a second memory, a plurality of metadata items corresponding to a plurality of video segments included in the video data respectively, each of the metadata items including a keyword and characteristic information of content of corresponding video segment;

selecting metadata items each including a specified keyword from the metadata items, to obtain selected metadata items;

extracting, from the video data, video segments corresponding to the selected metadata items, to obtain selected video segments;

generating summarized video data by connecting the extracted video segments in time series;

detecting a plurality of audio breakpoints included in the video data, to obtain a plurality of audio segments segmented by the audio breakpoints;

extracting, from the video data, audio segments corresponding to the extracted video segments as audio narrations; and

modifying an ending time of a video segment in the summarized video data so that the ending time of the video segment in the summarized video data coincides with or is later than an ending time of corresponding audio segment of the extracted audio segments.

15. The method according to claim 14, further including:

setting sound volume of each audio narration within corresponding video segment in the summarized video data including the video segment modified larger than sound volume of audio except for the each audio narration within the corresponding video segment.

16. The method according to claim 14, further including:

shifting temporal position for reproducing an audio segment of the extracted audio segments so that the temporal position lie within corresponding video segment in the summarized video data, when an ending time or a starting time of the audio segment of the extracted audio segments is later than an ending time of the corresponding video segment or earlier than a starting time of the corresponding video segment and length of the audio segment of the extracted audio segments is equal to or shorter than length of the corresponding video segment, and

wherein modifying modifies the ending time of the video segment in the summarized video data, when the ending time of the corresponding audio segment of the extracted audio segments is later than the ending time of the video segment and length of the corresponding audio segment extracted is longer than length of the video segment.

17. The method according to claim 16, further including:

setting sound volume of the audio narration within corresponding video segment in the summarized video data including the video segment modified and the audio segment of the extracted audio segments whose temporal position is shifted larger than sound volume of audio except for the each audio narration within the corresponding video segment.