| This thesis studies two major problems of content-based video processing for a media-based technology: Video Object Plane (VOP) Extraction and Representation, in support of the MPEG-4 and MPEG-7 video standards, respectively. After reviewing relevant image and video processing techniques, we introduce the concept of Voronoi Ordered Spaces for both VOP extraction and representation to integrate shape information into low-level optimization algorithms and to derive robust shape descriptor, respectively. We implement a video object segmentation system with a novel surface optimization scheme that integrates Voronoi Ordered Spaces and with existing techniques to balance visual information against predictions of models of a priori information. With these VOPs, we have an explicit forms of video objects that gives users the ability to address and manipulate video content. We outline a general methodology of robust data representation and comparison through the concept of complex partitioning mapped onto Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs). We produce a novel, intuitively interfaced image/video query by shape system for our video object planes whose extraction is based upon Voronoi Ordered Space and whose representation and complementary comparison algorithm are based on our work on DAGs. Within a media-based context, this Image/Video Query by Shape is an important functionality in the creation of a “new” media: an intuitive search over video content accessible both locally and over the Internet. In conclusion, we outline the future applications of content-based video processing and link these complementary pair of content-based processing systems synergistically in a proposed MPEG-4/7 hybrid system that uses high-level VOP representations to aid in the low-level VOP extraction. |
