The European Community (EC) sponsored project SMASH is investigating the needs and technological possibilities for multimedia storage device "at the home". Key frame extraction is an important preprocessing step for visual searching tools in image and video information. We describe two novel components of a key frame extraction system. Assuming that shot detection has taken place and that a frame-to-frame action measure is given, we propose a global key frame allocation method, which needs as input the user defined key frame rate, and an estimate for the average cumulative action. After assigning a number of key frames to a shot, an algorithm is proposed that distributes the key frames over the shot such that an optimal L/sub 1/ approximation of the cumulative action function is obtained.

An overview of the requirements for industrial applications of computer vision is given. A method called multilevel input binary template matching, which applies binary template matching to gray-level images, is presented. With this method, a vision system can be tailored to the difficulty of the individual computer-vision application while maintaining high speed and high reliability in all cases. A full custom VLSI specially designed for binary template matching is discussed. This dedicated VLSI chip, called IRIS, has a configurable kernel up to a size of 1024 elements for 1-D or up to 32*32 elements for 2-D, and has integrated line buffers. Some application examples from the field of industrial automation are presented.>

The requirements of a computer vision system in relation to industrial applications are studied. It is concluded that for the iconic image-processing part, a pipeline system built around a custom integrated circuit is preferred. This custom integrated circuit makes it possible to realize four basic operations in a compact way: shape recognition, mask generation, programmable image delay, and subsample filtering. An example that has been processed by a hardware realization of such a pipeline system is provided.>

Description or discrimination of boundary curves (shapes) is an important problem in picture processing and pattern recognition Fourier descriptors (FD's) have interesting properties in this respect. First, a critical review is given of two kinds of FD's. Some properties of the FD's are given and a distance measure is proposed, in terms of FD's, that measures the difference between two boundarv curves. It is shown how FD's can be used for obtaining skeletons fobjects. Finally, experimental results are given in character recognition and machine parts recognition.

Description or discrimination of boundary curves (shapes) is an important problem in picture processing and pattern recognition. Fourier descriptors (FD's) have interesting properties in this respect. First, a critical review is given of two kinds of FD's. Some properties of the FD's are given and a distance measure is proposed, in terms of FD's, that measures the difference between two boundary curves. It is shown how FD's can be used for obtaining skeletons of objects. Finally, experimental results are given in character recognition and machine parts recognition.