The priority curve algorithm for video summarization

In this paper, we introduce the concept of a priority curve associated with a video. We then provide an algorithm that can use the priority curve to create a summary (of a desired length) of any video. The summary thus created exhibits nice continuity properties and also avoids repetition. We have implemented the priority curve algorithm (PCA) and compared it with other summarization algorithms in the literature. We show that PCA is faster than existing algorithms and also produces better quality summaries. The quality of summaries was evaluated by a group of 200 students in Naples, Italy, who watched soccer videos. We also briefly describe a soccer video summarization system we have built on using the PCA architecture and various (classical) image processing algorithms.