Video segmentation based on multiple features for interactive multimedia applications

We present a scheme for interactive video segmentation. A key feature of the system is the distinction between two levels of segmentation, namely, regions and object segmentation. Regions are homogeneous areas of the images, which are extracted automatically by the computer. Semantically meaningful objects are obtained through user interaction by grouping of regions according to the specific application. This splitting relieves the computer of ill-posed semantic problems, and allows a higher level of flexibility of the method. The extraction of regions is based on the multidimensional analysis of several image features by a spatially constrained fuzzy C-means algorithm. The local level of reliability of the different features is taken into account in order to adaptively weight the contribution of each feature to the segmentation process. Results on the extraction of regions as well as on the tracking of spatiotemporal objects are presented.