Information-fusion-based Foreground Extraction for Video Streams

The new MPEG-4 video coding standard consists of object based coding schemes for multimedia and enables content based functionalities. Video objects in still pictures or video sequences should be first identified before the encoding process starts. An algorithm based on information fusion, which can be used for the extraction of foreground objects in video streams is proposed in this paper. The method efficiently integrates image and motion information of video streams. The thresholding technique operated in the HSV space provides a better use of the color information than that in the traditional RGB space. Using enhanced boundary extracted from the motion region for contour adaptation offers an original method to correct the contour. The system integrating various characteristic features of video streams, when applied in the context of video surveillance and background replacement, performs real-time foreground extraction of video streams on a PC, and the result is satisfying.