Indexing, browsing and searching of digital video

Video is a communications medium that normally brings together moving pictures with a synchronised audio track into a discrete piece or pieces of information. The size of a “piece ” of video can variously be referred to as a frame, a shot, a scene, a clip, a programme or an episode, and these are distinguished by their lengths and by their composition. We shall return to the definition of each of these in section 4 this chapter. In modern society, video is ver

User-based key frame detection in social web video

Video search results and suggested videos on web sites are represented with a video thumbnail, which is manually selected by the video up-loader among three randomly generated ones (e.g., YouTube). In contrast, we present a grounded user-based approach for automatically detecting interesting key-frames within a video through aggregated users' replay interactions with the video player. Previous research has focused on content-based systems that have the benefit of analyzing a video without user interactions, but they are monolithic, because the resulting video thumbnails are the same regardless of the user preferences. We constructed a user interest function, which is based on aggregate video replays, and analyzed hundreds of user interactions. We found that the local maximum of the replaying activity stands for the semantics of information rich videos, such as lecture, and how-to. The concept of user-based key-frame detection could be applied to any video on the web, in order to generate a user-based and dynamic video thumbnail in search results.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Video summarisation: A conceptual framework and survey of the state of the art

This is the post-print (final draft post-refereeing) version of the article. Copyright @ 2007 Elsevier Inc.Video summaries provide condensed and succinct representations of the content of a video stream through a combination of still images, video segments, graphical representations and textual descriptors. This paper presents a conceptual framework for video summarisation derived from the research literature and used as a means for surveying the research literature. The framework distinguishes between video summarisation techniques (the methods used to process content from a source video stream to achieve a summarisation of that stream) and video summaries (outputs of video summarisation techniques). Video summarisation techniques are considered within three broad categories: internal (analyse information sourced directly from the video stream), external (analyse information not sourced directly from the video stream) and hybrid (analyse a combination of internal and external information). Video summaries are considered as a function of the type of content they are derived from (object, event, perception or feature based) and the functionality offered to the user for their consumption (interactive or static, personalised or generic). It is argued that video summarisation would benefit from greater incorporation of external information, particularly user based information that is unobtrusively sourced, in order to overcome longstanding challenges such as the semantic gap and providing video summaries that have greater relevance to individual users

Identifying Engagement in Children's Interaction whilst Composing Digital Music at Home

Identifying points of engagement from a person’s interaction with computers could be used to assess their experience and to adapt user interfaces in real-time. However, it is difficult to identify points of engagement unobtrusively; HCI studies typically use retrospective protocols or rely on cumbersome sensors for real-time analysis. We present a case study on how children compose digital music at home in which we remotely identify points of engagement from patterns of interaction with a musical interface. A mixed-methods approach is contributed in which video recordings of children’s interactions whilst composing are labelled for engagement and linked to i) interaction logs from the interface to identify indicators of engagement in interaction, and ii) interview data gathered using a remote video-cued recall technique to understand the experiential qualities of engaging interactions directly from users. We conclude by speculating on how the suggested indicators of engagement inform the design of adaptive music systems

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

Interactive Tango Milonga: An Interactive Dance System for Argentine Tango Social Dance

abstract: When dancers are granted agency over music, as in interactive dance systems, the actors are most often concerned with the problem of creating a staged performance for an audience. However, as is reflected by the above quote, the practice of Argentine tango social dance is most concerned with participants internal experience and their relationship to the broader tango community. In this dissertation I explore creative approaches to enrich the sense of connection, that is, the experience of oneness with a partner and complete immersion in music and dance for Argentine tango dancers by providing agency over musical activities through the use of interactive technology. Specifically, I create an interactive dance system that allows tango dancers to affect and create music via their movements in the context of social dance. The motivations for this work are multifold: 1) to intensify embodied experience of the interplay between dance and music, individual and partner, couple and community, 2) to create shared experience of the conventions of tango dance, and 3) to innovate Argentine tango social dance practice for the purposes of education and increasing musicality in dancers.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Music 201

A survey of new technology for cockpit application to 1990's transport aircraft simulators

Two problems were investigated: inter-equipment data transfer, both on board the aircraft and between air and ground; and crew equipment communication via the cockpit displays and controls. Inter-equipment data transfer is discussed in terms of data bus and data link requirements. Crew equipment communication is discussed regarding the availability of CRT display systems for use in research simulators to represent flat panel displays of the future, and of software controllable touch panels

Interactive media in distance learning for UK farmers: the countryside disc

How might UK farmers benefit from using interactive computer-based media? These farmers need to learn how to change their practices in a rapidly changing economic and social environment. They have difficulty in obtaining suitable training through conventional audio-visual media and face-to-face sessions. How would they benefit from learning at a distance, using computer-based media in their own homes and offices? This thesis presents a naturalistic study of how a number of UK farmers benefited from using the Countryside Disc, one of the few examples available of an interactive training program aimed at farmers. The Disc, which is a computer-controlled laser vision videodisc, required the farmers to act in a complex simulated world (of a farm and its social and ecological environment) in which they received frequent and immediate feedback concerning the consequences of their actions. After a pilot study to develop the methodology, the main study involved observation and recording of 10 farmers' interactions with the Disc. The farmers engaged in hundreds of instructional interactions with the Disc. Each farmer's approach to learning changed as he or she worked through the program, and was clearly related to the learning outcomes for that person. The Disc demanded a deep approach: two farmers who attempted to use a surface approach were unable to continue. The farmers drew heavily on their experience in the real farming world and the frequent feedback prompted them to be reflective on both that experience and the training offered by the Disc. They also encountered a range of navigational problems, most of which could be reduced or eliminated through redesign of the Disc. The most important finding was that farmers, through using the Countryside Disc, received training, in their homes and offices, in (a) gaining deep understanding of the interplay of factors involved in present-day farming, and (b) making profitable farm management decisions - while observing relevant regulations and being responsive to the opinions of interest groups. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the findings in the light of theories advanced by Marton and Säljö on deep and surface learning, by Laurillard on conversational framework and by Schön on reflective practitioners. It includes suggestions for further research