Hierarchical object-oriented video segmentation and representation algorithm

In this paper, a novel object-oriented hierarchical video segmentation and representation algorithm is proposed based on a four-component video model, where the local variance contrast and the frame difference contrast are selected for generating the 2D spatiotemporal entropy. The extracted object is first represented by a group of (4/spl times/4) blocks coarsely, then the intra-block edge extraction on edge blocks and the joint spatiotemporal similarity test among neighboring blocks are further performed for determining meaningful real objects. This proposed hierarchical segmentation algorithm may be very useful for MPEG-4 applications. A novel fast algorithm is also introduced for reducing the search burden. Moreover, this unsupervised algorithm also makes automatic image and video segmentation possible.