Video Synopsis: Real-Time Frame Reduction for Surveillance and Archiving
Video synopsis, which involves summarizing a video to generate a shorter version, is a crucial task in the fields of surveillance and archiving. By exploiting spatial and temporal redundancies, video synopsis can save storage space and processing time. However, existing trajectory-based algorithms for video synopsis are not able to work in real time due to the complexity arising from the large number of object tubes that need to be included in the energy minimization algorithm.
In this article, we present a novel real-time video synopsis algorithm that tackles the limitations of existing methods. Our approach incrementally stitches each frame of the synopsis by extracting object frames from a user-specified number of tubes in the buffer. This differs from global energy-minimization based systems and offers greater flexibility to the user, allowing them to set the threshold for the maximum number of objects in the synopsis video according to their tracking ability.
One major advantage of our algorithm is that it creates collision-free summarized videos that are visually pleasing. By carefully selecting object frames from the buffer, we ensure that the resulting synopsis video does not contain any overlapping or conflicting objects, which can be distracting or confusing for viewers.
We conducted experiments using six common test videos, both indoors and outdoors, with numerous moving objects. The results indicate that our proposed video synopsis algorithm outperforms existing approaches in terms of frame reduction rates. This means that our algorithm is able to generate shorter summary videos while still preserving important information.
Overall, our real-time video synopsis algorithm addresses the limitations of existing trajectory-based methods and offers improved frame reduction rates. By providing users with more control over the maximum number of objects in the synopsis video, our algorithm allows for greater customization and adaptability. These advancements will have significant implications for surveillance and archiving applications, where efficient and visually pleasing video summarization is crucial.