Multi-modal dialog scene detection using hidden Markov models for content-based multimedia indexing

A class of audio-visual data (fiction entertainment: movies, TV series) is segmented into scenes, which contain dialogs, using a novel hidden Markov model-based (HMM) method. Each shot is classified using both audio track (via classification of speech, silence and music) and visual content (face and location information). The result of this shot-based classification is an audio-visual token to be used by the HMM state diagram to achieve scene analysis. After simulations with circular and left-to-right HMM topologies, it is observed that both are performing very good with multi-modal inputs. Moreover, for circular topology, the comparisons between different training and observation sets show that audio and face information together gives the most consistent results among different observation sets.