On the Use of Layers for Video Coding and Object Manipulation

Layered representations, originally introduced in 7] are important in several applications. Speciically, they are very appropriate for object tracking, object manipulation and content-based scalability which are among the main functionalities of the future standard MPEG-4 2, 3]. A robust representation of moving images based on layers has been presented in 5]. One of the most crucial stages in the formation of layers is the motion segmentation. In particular, the initial segmentation is very critical for the success of the layered system. In this context, the objective of this paper 1 is to provide some insight on the performance of layers by studying diierent initial segmentations for the construction of layers. In order to have a self-contained paper, the rst part of the paper reviews the main concepts and results presented in 5] which includes image synthesis and object manipulation. The second part provides diierent type of initial segmenta-tions that help to analyze the performance of the overall layered representation of moving images. Some comments on the use of layers for video coding are also introduced.