O. de Rooij

The Mediamill Semantic Video Search Engine

In this paper we present the methods underlying the MediaMill semantic video search engine. The basis for the engine is a semantic indexing process which is currently based on a lexicon of 491 concept detectors. To support the user in navigating the collection, the system defines a visual similarity space, a semantic similarity space, a semantic thread space, and browsers to explore them. We compare the different browsers and their utility within the TRECVID benchmark. In 2005, we obtained a top-3 result for 19 out of 24 search topics. In 2006 for 14 out of 24.

VideOlympics: Real-Time Evaluation of Multimedia Retrieval Systems

The first VideOlympics brings content-based analysis to the archive and allows for many-to- many communication between video search engines and their audience It was a great Success. The VideOlympics provided the excitement of a competition without the associated stress on the participants. For the first time, the audience was able to compare different multimedia retrieval systems on the same tasks and see how they performed with unrehearsed topics. Many audience members felt they understood the technologys capabilities after seeing it in live action and in several system variations.

Browsing Video Along Multiple Threads

This paper describes a novel method for browsing a large video collection. It links various forms of related video fragments together as threads. These threads are based on query results, the timeline as well as visual and semantic similarity. We design two interfaces which use threads as the basis for browsing. One interface shows a minimal set of threads, and the other as many as fit on the screen. To evaluate both interfaces we perform a regular user study, a study based on user simulation, and we participated in the interactive video retrieval task of the TRECVID benchmark. The results indicate that the use of threads in interactive video retrieval is beneficial. Furthermore, we found that in general the query result and the timeline are the most important threads, but having several additional threads improves the performance as it encourages people to explore new dimensions.

Active Bucket Categorization for High Recall Video Retrieval

There are large amounts of digital video available. High recall retrieval of these requires going beyond the ranked results, which is the common target in high precision retrieval. To aid high recall retrieval, we propose Active Bucket Categorization, which is a multicategory interactive learning strategy which extends MediaTable , our multimedia categorization tool. MediaTable allows users to place video shots into buckets: user-assigned subsets of the collection. Our Active Bucket Categorization approach augments this by unobtrusively expanding these buckets with related footage from the whole collection. In this paper, we propose an architecture for active bucket-based video retrieval, evaluate two different learning strategies, and show its use in video retrieval with an evaluation using three groups of nonexpert users. One baseline group uses only the categorization features of MediaTable such as sorting and filtering on concepts and fast grid preview, but no online learning mechanisms. One group uses on-demand passive buckets. The last group uses fully automatic active buckets which autonomously add content to buckets. Results indicate a significant increase in the number of relevant items found for the two groups of users using bucket expansions, yielding the best results with fully automatic bucket expansions, thereby aiding high recall video retrieval significantly.

Semantic Video Search

In this paper we describe the current performance of our MediaMill system as presented in the TRECVID 2006 benchmark for video search engines. The MediaMill team participated in two tasks: concept detection and search. For concept detection we use the MediaMill Challenge as experimental platform. The MediaMill Challenge divides the generic video indexing problem into a visual-only, textual- only, early fusion, late fusion, and combined analysis experiment. We provide a baseline implementation for each experiment together with baseline results. We extract image features, on global, regional, and keypoint level, which we combine with various supervised learners. A late fusion approach of visual-only analysis methods using geometric mean was our most successful run. With this run we conquer the Challenge baseline by more than 50%. Our concept detection experiments have resulted in the best score for three concepts: i.e. desert, flag us, and charts. What is more, using LSCOM annotations, our visual-only approach generalizes well to a set of 491 concept detectors. To handle such a large thesaurus in retrieval, an engine is developed which allows users to select relevant concept detectors based on interactive browsing using advanced visualizations. Similar to previous years our best interactive search runs yield top performance, ranking 2nd and 6th overall.

Lexicon-based Browsers for Searching in News Video Archives

In this paper we present the methods and visualizations used in the MediaMill video search engine. The basis for the engine is a semantic indexing process which derives a lexicon of 101 concepts. To support the user in navigating the collection, the system defines a visual similarity space, a semantic similarity space, a semantic thread space, and browsers to explore them. The search system is evaluated within the TRECVID benchmark. We obtain a top-3 result for 19 out of 24 search topics. In addition, we obtain the highest mean average precision of all search participants

MediaMill: Video Query on Demand using the Rotorbrowser

In this technical demonstration we showcase the RotorBrowser. A visualization within MediaMill system which uses query exploration as the basis for search in video archives.