Multiple occluding objects tracking using a non-redundant boundary-based representation for image sequence interpolation after decoding

In this paper we present a boundary-based representation of a motion-based image sequence segmentation. A tracking algorithm is associated to this structure which is able to handle several objects simultaneously, in the presence of partial occlusions. This segmentation representation uses the boundaries between all couples of adjacent regions approximated by a polygonal line. We extend it with a label on each boundary indicating to which region it is belonging from a motion point of view. This information is useful for an efficient predictive tracking of this representation over time. Moreover, we show that the structural information enclosed in our representation is very useful when regions are occluding. This representation can be used for multiple purposes in image sequence analysis (for example region fusion, layering) as well as coding and multimedia applications (for instance motion-compensated compression, temporal interpolation, object manipulation). Among these applications, we consider a temporal image sequence interpolation which can be done at the receiver end of a coder/decoder chain