Whiteboard Content Extraction and Analysis for the Classroom Environment

We describe whiteboard content capture system from Presentations Automatically Organized from Lectures(PAOL) that captures content within the setting of a classroom environment. The system acquires a sequence of images from high-resolution, fixed view cameras and extracts a series of content-rich key frames. The key frames are derived by analyzing the camera images of the front of the room, selecting images that show the progression of the presented material (writing, projected images), digitally removing the speaker's image, and enhancing the images for greater legibility. These images can be distributed in real time or stored and later synchronized with other content (video, computer capture). The system requires no specialized hardware other than fixed-field-of-view cameras, is transparent to the lecturer, and handles both whiteboard and projected presentations. The system extracts on average approximately 70 key frames from roughly 70000 images captured during a 75-minute presentation and runs at close to real time.