Interactive Video Search Using Multilevel Indexing

Large video collections present a unique set of challenges to the search system designer. Text transcripts do not always provide an accurate index to the visual content, and the performance of visually based semantic extraction techniques is often inadequate for search tasks. The searcher must be relied upon to provide detailed judgment of the relevance of specific video segments. We describe a video search system that facilitates this user task by efficiently presenting search results in semantically meaningful units to simplify exploration of query results and query reformulation. We employ a story segmentation system and supporting user interface elements to effectively present query results at the story level. The system was tested in the 2004 TRECVID interactive search evaluations with very positive results.