Media segmentation using self-similarity decomposition

We present a framework for analyzing the structure of digital media streams. Though our methods work for video, text, and audio, we concentrate on detecting the structure of digital music files. In the first step, spectral data is used to construct a similarity matrix calculated from inter-frame spectral similarity. The digital audio can be robustly segmented by correlating a kernel along the diagonal of the similarity matrix. Once segmented, spectral statistics of each segment are computed. In the second step, segments are clustered based on the self-similarity of their statistics. This reveals the structure of the digital music in a set of segment boundaries and labels. Finally, the music can be summarized by selecting clusters with repeated segments throughout the piece. The summaries can be customized for various applications based on the structure of the original music.