The priority curve algorithm for video summarization

In this paper, we introduce the concept of a priority curve associated with a video. We then provide an algorithm that can use the priority curve to create a summary (of a desired length) of any video. The summary thus created exhibits nice continuity properties and also avoids repetition. We have implemented the priority curve algorithm (PriCA) and compared it with other summarization algorithms in the literature with respect to both performance and the output quality. The quality of summaries was evaluated by a group of 200 students in Naples, Italy, who watched soccer videos. We show that PriCA is faster than existing algorithms and also produces better quality summaries. We also briefly describe a soccer video summarization system we have built on using the PriCA architecture and various (classical) image processing algorithms. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.