Method and apparatus for video navigation

• US 20090158323A1
• Filed: 09/07/2006
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Bober, Miroslaw, Paschalakis, Stavros
• Application Number:
  US11/991,092
• Publication Number:
  US 20090158323A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/37
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs

Abstract

A method of deriving a representation of a video sequence comprises deriving metadata expressing at least one temporal characteristic of a frame or group of frames, and one or both of metadata expressing at least one content-based characteristic of a frame or group of frames and relational metadata expressing relationships between at least one content-based characteristic of a frame or group of frames and at least one other frame or group of frames, and associating said metadata and/or relational metadata with the respective frame or group of frames.

Claims

1. A method of deriving a representation of a video sequence comprising a plurality of frames, the method comprising deriving metadata expressing at least one temporal characteristic of a frame or group of frames, and one or both of metadata expressing at least one content-based characteristic of a frame or group of frames and relational metadata expressing relationships between at least one content-based characteristic of a frame or group of frames and at least one other frame or group of frames, and associating said metadata and/or relational metadata with the respective frame or group of frames.

2. The method of claim 1 comprising segmenting the video sequence into groups of frames according to at least one type of temporal segmentation, wherein the temporal metadata is related to the temporal segmentation, and the content-based metadata or relational metadata is derived from respective groups of frames.

3. The method of claim 2 comprising segmenting the video sequence into groups of frames according to two or more different types of temporal segmentations, and deriving metadata and/or relational metadata for each of the different types of segmentations.

4. The method of any claim 2 or claim 3 wherein the temporal characteristic represents the temporal segmentation.

5. The method of any preceding claim wherein the temporal characteristic represents the location of the frame or group of frames in the video sequence.

6. The method of any preceding claim wherein the content-based characteristics comprise one or more of visual characteristics, audio characteristics, text, keywords, people, and author.

7. The method of any preceding claim wherein relational metadata uses similarity measures between metadata.

8. A method of displaying a video sequence for navigation, using a representation derived using the method of any preceding claim.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising, for a first frame or group of frames, selecting at least one other frame or group of frames based on said relational metadata, or based on a relationship between respective metadata.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the first frame or group of frames is the current frame or group of frames being displayed, or the previous or successive frame or group of frames.

11. The method of claim 9 or claim 10 comprising selecting at least one other frame or group of frames based on a time window.

12. The method of any of claims 9 to 11 further comprising displaying a representation of said selected frame or group of frames.

13. The method of claim 12 comprising ordering the displayed representations according to one or more of time, relevance or similarity based on time, relevance or similarity based on content.

14. The method of claim 12 or claim 13 wherein the displayed representation comprises one or more of information regarding content, or relevance or similarity based on content, information regarding time, or relevance or similarity based on time, and information regarding metadata.

15. The method of any of claims 8 to 14 further comprising displaying options for navigation including one or more of:

at least one type of temporal segmentation, at least one type of content-based characteristic, time or location in the video sequence.

16. The method of any of claims 9 to 15 further comprising displaying the selected group of frames or a group of frames including the selected frame.

17. A method of navigating a video sequence, using a representation derived using the method of any of claims 1 to 7.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein a video sequence is displayed using the method of any of claims 8 to 16.

19. The method of claim 17 or claim 18, comprising selecting options, including, for example, at least one type of temporal segmentation, at least one type of content-based characteristic, time or location in the video sequence.

20. The method of any preceding claim for two or more different video sequences, optionally omitting temporal metadata.

21. A representation of a video sequence derived using the method of any of claims 1 to 7.

22. A storage medium or storage means storing a video sequence and a representation of the video sequence derived using the method of any of claims 1 to 7.

23. Apparatus for executing the method of any of claims 1 to 20

24. Apparatus of claim 20 comprising one or more of a control means or processor, a storage medium or storage means, and a display.

25. Apparatus of claim 23 or claim 24 comprising a storage medium or storage means storing at least one representation of a video sequence derived using the method of any of claims 1 to 7.

26. Computer program for executing the method of any of claims 1 to 20 or computer-readable storage medium storing such a computer program.