The Automated 'Virtual Commentator' for Video Content
From: IST Results - 07/27/2005

A "virtual commentator" algorithm developed by the IST-funded COGVISYS
project can automatically create textual descriptions of video streams by
assessing specific cues from the video input signal, which are translated
into conceptual representations and then converted into natural language
descriptions of video sequences. This technique in turn enables the checking
of the computational processes that are employed to produce descriptions of
complex external events from video recordings. Project coordinator
Hans-Hellmut Nagel says the COGVISYS system could potentially be used as a
video content search tool. A user seeking a video sequence on the Internet
can enter a text search query, and "the system searches for suitable videos,
interprets the content on the fly, and decides if the match is good enough to
report back to [the user]," he explains. Working demonstrators of the
COGVISYS approach were successfully developed as a vehicle driver assistance
application, an application for converting US/UK sign language into text and
then into speech, and a TV program analysis application. Nagel believes the
COGVISYS system could find use in the domain of elderly care, as a tool that
monitors the activities of aged residents in conjunction with a household
video camera, and alerts caregivers when anomalous actions are observed. He
says such technology could be commercially rolled out within a decade. Part
of the COGVISYS software is available for download under an open source
license, and some applications can be viewed on the project Web site.  

Read the entire article at:
http://istresults.cordis.lu/index.cfm/section/news/tpl/article/BrowsingType/Features/ID/77855

Links:

Cognitive Vision Systems (CogViSys)
http://cogvisys.iaks.uni-karlsruhe.de/

CogViSys -- Cognitive Vision Systems
http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~vgg/projects/cvs/

Cognitive Vision: CogViSys
http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~ki/research.html

Hans-Hellmut Nagel
http://www.ira.uka.de/I3V_HTML/MITARBEITER/10