VORTEX: Video retrieval and tracking from compressed multimedia databases-visual search engine

Multimedia data is generally stored in compressed form in order to efficiently utilize the available storage facilities. Access to archives is dependent on our ability to browse compressed multimedia information-retrieval and tracking from coded video databases. In this paper, a novel visual search engine for video retrieval and tracking from compressed multimedia databases is proposed. The goal of the project is the implementation of a visual browser that operates in a distributed environment where users initiate video searches and retrieve relevant video information simultaneously from multiple video archives. Being presented with a query in the form of template images of objects, the system operates on the compressed video to find the images or video sequences where those objects are present and their positions in the image. Upon user's request, the system will decompress and display only the video sequences of interest.