Abstract: A user preference information structure having a multiple hierarchical structure in which an information is provided to a user according to a user preference in a multi-media environment consisting of an information provider and an information user, comprising user use information by using information desired by the user; user preference information of information desired by the user; and individual user preference information that is differently set depending on situations in which the user is put and positioned in a sub-tree of the user preference information. The hierarchical data structure is able to provide the user preference for providing information desired by the user is provided depending on the environment, based on which various information can be provided.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for controlling reproduction of video contents, wherein a user can readily move a play position to a desired scene within a brief period of time to reproduce video contents from the moved play position. The user can pause or replay a desired scene without requesting separate skipping. In particular, in the case where the user requests a pause mode or a normal play mode during a quick browsing mode, rather than during the normal play mode, the present system exhibits many differences from existing systems and excellent performance over them.

Abstract: Described is an intelligent fast-forward video system that automatically controls a relative play speed of the video based on a complexity of the content reflecting the real story of a video, thereby enabling to carry out a fast-forward viewing for summarizing an entire story of a digital video or moving fast to a major concerning part. The present invention obtains the complexity of the content using information of motion vector, shot, face, text, and audio for an entire video and adaptively controls the play speed for each of the intervals on a fast-forward viewing of the corresponding video on the basis of the obtained complexity of the content. And, in more detail, the present invention plays a complicated story interval relatively slow and a simple and tedious part relatively fast, thereby enabling to provide a user with a summarized story of the corresponding video without viewing the entire video as well as a fast search for a part wanted by the user.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a non-linear reproduction control method of multimedia stream and an apparatus thereof, the present invention comprises judging a skip direction by interpreting whether a skip request is a forward skip or a backward skip when the skip request is inputted from the user, determining a skip unit by judging whether the user request is a big unit or a small unit, selecting a structural information or semantic information change point of the multimedia stream mostly adjacent to the present reproduction position as a reproduction resume point on the basis of the determined skip direction and skip unit or selecting the reproduction resume point by using the set temporal offset from the preset reproduction position, accordingly it is possible to.

Abstract: A user preference information structure having a multiple hierarchical structure in which an information is provided to a user according to a user preference in a multi-media environment having an information provider and an information user, that can include user use information by using information desired by the user; user preference information of information desired by the user; and individual user preference information that is differently set depending on situations in which the user is put and positioned in a sub-tree of the user preference information. The hierarchical data structure is able to provide the user preference for providing information desired by the user is provided depending on the environment, based on which various information can be provided.

Abstract: A user preference information data structure which is capable of classifying and setting user's preference information regarding multimedia contents with multiple items to thereby provide users with user's request-based whole or partial multi-media information, and a method for providing multi-media information by using the user preference information data structure. The multiple item user preference information data structure for multi-media contents comprising: single item user preference information for single items related to the multi-media information; and multiple items user preference information for multiple items formed by combining the single items.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for detecting an edge in an image or video. The present invention can detect an edge more quickly by detecting edge information by using the absolute values and codes of two coefficients (AC01, AC10) in the DCT domain. In addition, the present invention can detect a more rapid and accurate edge by using the edge detection method using two coefficients as a pre-filter and using the edge detection method using a spatial filter as a post-filter.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a non-linear reproduction control method of multimedia stream and an apparatus thereof, the present invention comprises judging a skip direction by interpreting whether a skip request is a forward skip or a backward skip when the skip request is inputted from the user, determining a skip unit by judging whether the user request is a big unit or a small unit, selecting a structural information or semantic information change point of the multimedia stream mostly adjacent to the present reproduction position as a reproduction resume point on the basis of the determined skip direction and skip unit or selecting the reproduction resume point by using the set temporal offset from the preset reproduction position, accordingly it is possible to.

Abstract: A method for providing a user-adaptive digest stream provides a digest stream of a multimedia stream having a user-desired length and reflecting the user's preference/non-preference. The method for providing a user-adaptive multi-level digest stream can dynamically provide the user-adaptive digest stream according to user preference information. The method can include searching user preference information having user preference/non-preference level by categories for a multimedia stream, and reconstructing a multi-level digest stream information on a multimedia stream as a multi-level digest stream information according to the user preference information, using both the searched user preference information and a content-based data of a multimedia stream. Thereby, it is possible to quickly, accurately and conveniently provide a multi-level digest stream corresponding to the user's preference without inputting an additional query condition.

Abstract: Disclosed are a method of constructing information on associate meanings between segments of a multimedia stream, which can describe the cause/effect or abstract/detail relationship between segments of the video streams to efficiently browse the video stream and a method of browsing a video using the same. The present invention defines the cause/effect or abstract/detail relationship between the segments, event intervals, scenes, shots, etc. existing within one video stream or between the video streams, and provides a method of describing the relationship in a data region based on the content of a video stream as well as a method of browsing a video by using the information on the cause/effect or abstract/detail relationship obtained by the aforementioned method. Accordingly, a video browsing on associate meanings is available with easy manipulation and easy access to a desired part, thereby providing an effective video browsing interface for easy browsing of desired segments in a short period of time.

Abstract: A wipe and special effect detection method in a gradual shot transition method used for editing a video stream is described.

Abstract: A system and method for providing index data service of multimedia contents are disclosed, wherein the system comprises: a data server system for providing multimedia data services through a wire or wireless line; an index server system for receiving streams from the data server system, extracting index data of the streams, and providing the extracted index data to a subscriber equipment; and the subscriber equipment for recording and playing the multimedia data from the data server system in real time and providing a user interface that can perform nonlinear search and browsing using the index data provided from the index server system.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an image search method capable of expressing one color feature related to a spatial color feature of a still image based on a multilevel image grid and similarity-based searching images using the thusly expressed multilevel image grid. In the present invention, hierarchical grids of different levels are generated with respect to one feature for thereby obtaining a data structure in which each cell corresponding to the grid is expressed based on a reliability on a region representative color and the region representative color, so that it is possible to fast and accurately search images with respect to a user's content-based query based on a cell matching of the same level as two image grids and different levels or a color local matching of the grid match.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a hierarchical hybrid shot change detection method in MPEG-compressed video circumstances, wherein the method according to the present invention comprises: detecting a shot change candidate region, by hierarchically applying a global color distribution difference among the frames by the color histogram; detecting an abridged shot change candidate region by using the difference of the global color histogram difference among adjacent I, P frames after additionally decoding P frames existed in the detected candidate region; decoding B frames within a abridged shot change detection candidate region at a macro block level in a sequence of the B frames sharing adjacent two anchor frames; determining a distribution characteristic of an intra coded block and a reference pattern type of each B frame in the region; and detecting a hard cut by using the distribution characteristic and reference type.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a system for searching and browsing multimedia, and more particularly, to a video skimming method and apparatus which is capable of summarizing the full content of a subject video data within a short time and rapidly moving to a desired section by skimming the content of the video based on scenes and shots formed by shot clustering and shot segmentation. The video skimming apparatus selects scenes to be reproduced and scenes to be skipped based on content-based video skimming, and then continuously reproducing a pertinent section in a shot of the scene or partially reproducing the same by utilizing a skipping technique.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for summarizing a news video stream using a synthetic key frame based upon news video text. The method according to the invention generates the synthetic key frame by allocating different importance measures according to an icon text region and a general text region.

Abstract: There is provided a method of detecting dissolve/fade in an MPEG-compressed video environment, which includes the steps of: detecting a candidate sequence that is presumed to use a dissolve/fade editing effect according to shot transition detection in a video sequence; finding if spatio-temporal macro block type distribution that characteristically appears in a dissolve/fade sequence arises in the dissolve/fade candidate sequence, to judge if a scene transition by dissolve/fade was used in the detected dissolve/fade candidate sequence; and when the spatio-temporal macro block type distribution in the dissolve/fade sequence continuously appears in the dissolve/fade candidate sequence, comparing the length of the candidate sequence with a predetermined critical value and finally judging that the candidate sequence is a dissolve/fade sequence when its length is longer than the threshold.

Abstract: A multi-level position or range designating method for browsing, editing and indexing a multimedia stream is disclosed. The present method continuously sets a general range designated by a user from a previous level as an entire multimedia stream for a present level to display a more detailed view of the multimedia stream, such that a user can make a more minute designation of a desired range.

Abstract: The present invention is intended to provide multiple levels of digest streams for multimedia contents with small amount of additional storage using a multiple level digest segment information scheme. In the present invention, a multiple level digest segment information is contained in the content-based data area of the multimedia content by representing a level information of each digest segment by multiple levels in a content-based data area of a multimedia content, describing the digest level of the digest segment and the time range information of the digest segment in the digest segment information scheme, and outputting digest segments whose digest level is less than or equal to requested digest level by decoding, upon receipt of the digest level of the digest segment.

Abstract: The present invention is intended to provide multiple levels of digest streams for multimedia contents with small amount of additional storage using a multiple level digest segment information scheme. In the present invention, a multiple level digest segment information is contained in the content-based data area of the multimedia content by representing a level information of each digest segment by multiple levels in a content-based data area of a multimedia content, describing the digest level of the digest segment and the time range information of the digest segment in the digest segment information scheme, and outputting digest segments whose digest level is less than or equal to requested digest level by decoding, upon receipt of the digest level of the digest segment.