Patent ID: 7046914

Claim:
For use in a multimedia analysis system capable of analyzing content of multimedia signals, an apparatus for creating a multimedia table of contents of videotaped material, said apparatus comprising: a multimedia table of contents controller capable of: receiving video signals, audio signals, and text signals of said videotaped material; combining portions of said video signals, audio signals, and text signals of said videotaped material to create a table of contents of said videotaped material; creating said table of contents of said videotaped material by selecting a video segment that relates to an element of said videotaped material, and by adding said video segment to said table of contents of said videotaped material; and executing computer software instructions contained within a memory unit coupled to said controller: to create said table of contents of said videotaped material by segmenting a video signal of said videotaped material into elements using a coarse table of contents segmentation application, and by locating video boundaries of said elements of said videotaped material using a coarse boundary detection application; and to create said table of contents of said videotaped material by segmenting said video signal of said videotaped material into said elements using a fine table of contents segmentation application, and by locating said video boundaries of said elements of said videotaped material using a fine boundary detection application.