A unified model for techniques on video-shot transition detection

A first step required to allow video indexing and retrieval of visual data is to perform a temporal segmentation, that is, to find the location of camera-shot transitions, which can be either abrupt (i.e., cuts) or gradual (e.g., fades, dissolves, wipes). After a critical review of most approaches seeking to solve this problem, we propose a unified detection model (both for abrupt and all types of gradual transitions), as well as an implementation whose results improve upon those of all the inspected reports. The innovation of the approach presented here is centered on mapping the space of inter-frame distances onto a new space of decision better suited to achieving a sequence-independent thresholding. This mapping aims to consider frame ordering information within the thresholding process; it is based on the parametric modeling of the patterns that transitions generate on the distances' output. As opposed to most reviewed works, our results are detailed over a large and representative sample of more than 1500 cuts and 250 gradual transitions, which make up a significant part (200 min) of the MPEG-7 testing material; this ensures a high degree of confidence in the validity of our approach.