Real-time visual content description system based on MPEG-7 descriptors

This paper presents a real-time Visual Content Description System (VCDS) based on MPEG-7 descriptors. In our approach the system's structure is divided into two parts, the first of which is the extraction of the descriptors using the VCDS. The second part uses the descriptors' values in a particular search algorithm. We propose here original solutions for both parts. The proposed system architecture could be used for real-time video indexing and retrieval, content summarization, content delivery, surveillance, personalized services, etc. The descriptor extractor IP core, which is part of the VCDS, implements four MPEG-7 visual descriptors and was designed for ASIC implementation in CMOS 0.35 mu m, which is a novel solution for a real-time content description problem. The proposed hardware architecture splits the computational burden into several threads, so that calculations are made simultaneously in order to improve the system's speed. These methods make the hardware implementation of the most computationally demanding modules of the system more time- and power-efficient. Four different variations of the basic hardware architecture are discussed. New search algorithms based on the VCDS responses are also proposed. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the hardware architectures, and the new approach to similarity-based searching methods.