A Time-Consistent Video Segmentation Algorithm designed for Real-Time Implementation

In this paper, we propose a time consistent video segmentation algorithm designed for real-time implementation. Our segmentation algorithm is based on a region merging process that combines both spatial and motion information. The spatial segmentation takes benefit of an adaptive decision rule and a specific order of merging. Our method has proven to be efficient for the segmentation of natural images (at or textured regions) with few parameters to be set. Temporal consistency of the segmentation is ensured by incorporating motion information through the use of an improved change detection mask. This mask is designed using both illumination differences between frames, and region segmentation of the previous frame. By considering both pixel and region levels, we obtain a particularly efficient algorithm at a low computational cost, allowing its implementation in real-time on the TriMedia processor for CIF image sequences.