An interactive and multi-level framework for summarising user generated videos

We present an interactive and multi-level abstraction framework for user-generated video (UGV) summarisation, allowing a user the flexibility to select a summarisation criterion out of a number of methods provided by the system. First, a given raw video is segmented into shots, and each shot is further decomposed into sub-shots in line with the change in dominant camera motion. Secondly, principal component analysis (PCA) is applied to the colour representation of the collection of sub-shots, and a content map is created using the first few components. Each sub-shot is represented with a "footprint" on the content map, which reveals its content significance (coverage) and the most dynamic segment. The final stage of abstraction is devised in a user-assisted manner whereby a user is able to specify a desired summary length, with options to interactively perform abstraction at different granularity of visual comprehension. The results obtained show the potential benefit in significantly alleviating the burden of laborious user intervention associated with conventional video editing/browsing.