INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR STANDARDIZATION
ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE NORMALISATION
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11
CODING OF MOVING PICTURES AND AUDIO
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11
MPEG2008/N9770
April 2008, Archamps, FR
Source: MPEG Video Sub-Group
Status: Approved
Title: Overview of MPEG-7 Visual Signature Tools
Existing MPEG-7 visual descriptors characterise image and video content according to features such as colour, texture and shape. The descriptors are very useful when trying to find media with similar content but not ideal when the aim is finding identical content. The visual signature tools under development in MPEG-7 Visual are intended to complement the existing MPEG-7 visual descriptors by providing "fingerprints" to uniquely identify individual media items. The idea is that these new signatures are robust (unchanging) across a wide range of common editing operations, but are sufficiently different for every item of “original” content to identify it uniquely and reliably – just like human fingerprints.
The Image Signature provides a unique compact description of an image that allows fast matching and is robust to common image processing transformations such as translation, rotation, scaling, cropping, compression, and colour to monochrome conversion, amongst others.
Two complementary approaches have been developed. The first allows very fast searching and is robust to a simple set of modification operations. A technology for this set of conditions has reached the FPDAM stage. A second approach is robust to a wider range of modifications with slower search speeds than the first approach. A technology for the second approach is now part of the eXperimental Model.
The Video Signature should provide a unique, compact description of a short video segment that allows fast matching and is robust to common video processing transformations such as text/logo overlay, severe compression, resolution reduction, capturing on camera, and resolution reduction, among others. A Preliminary Call for Proposals is issued at the 84th MPEG meeting with the final Call for Proposals due at the 85th MPEG meeting.