Automatic video object segmentation for MPEG-4

This paper presents a novel method to automatically extract moving objects using motion and color information. Based on pattern recognition and object tracking principles, the proposed method can handle sequences both with moving and stationary backgrounds. It derives for each physical object a two-dimensional binary model, with the model points corresponding to the edges that were detected by the Canny Operator. The resulting binary models combined with the temporal and spatial information will then guide the extraction of the actual VOPs from the video sequence. The performance of the segmentation technique is illustrated by simulations carried out on standard video sequences.