Robust segmentation of moving image sequences

This paper introduces a method for a hierarchical representation of moving image sequences. The basic level of this hierarchy is a spatial segmentation, rich in regions and whose contours are localised very precisely. The next levels are constructed by a motion-based progressive merging of regions. Different levels of this hierarchy are nested. This representation is sufficiently flexible to allow a “logical zoom” in the image content and to provide a scalable bit rate. So the two goals of content manipulation and of image compression can be reached