Scene change detection by segmentation analysis

摘要

A process and apparatus for identifying abrupt cuts or scene changes in any ordered sequence of images. In one specific embodiment, two or more consecutive images from a sequence are introduced to a segmenter as digital frames. The segmenter independently divides each of these frames into pixel regions or segments according to some common characteristic so that every pixel belongs to exactly one segment. A segment analysis unit then performs some statistical analysis on the segment data for each of the frames and generates composite statistics for each frame. A frame comparison unit then examines these composite statistics to determine whether these frames belong to a consistent scene of images. If the composite statistics for these frames differ sufficiently, the comparison unit declares the latter frame in the sequence to belong to a new scene. This information may then be transmitted back to the data source for the purpose of marking the scene change or for any other purpose.