What is interactive video? Initially, this definition meant a system where the user could independently control the choice of image: a kind of synthesis of a computer game and a video film was obtained. At the moment, scientists are faced with the goal of creating hyper video: a full-fledged video environment with the possibility of unlimited development and complication
To understand what is at stake, you need to present Internet text with embedded links to other pages, where instead of text there will be a interactive video. Imagine a camera moving around the room, which you yourself control, flying around the house, and in addition, you can carefully examine any object and through it get into another movie where this object will be in the lead role.
Now the question of practice is where to start solving this problem, how to make the transition between parts of the film invisible and easy. Here you cannot do without algorithms and image recognition systems.
Initially, image recognition systems were purely military technology, used in equipment for electronic target designation and navigation of complex military equipment. Gradually, they became more accessible and moved to the police service. Connected to surveillance cameras, these systems help catch criminals or automatically record violations in European cities. Also, these algorithms have found application in medicine (automatic processing of analyzes), in science (electron microscope control) and training in complex professions (virtual reality video simulators for pilots and nuclear power plant employees).
Now the issue of image recognition is beginning to interest business representatives in the field of IT and database management. Serious work begins on the creation of search engines for working with video over the Internet and the optimization of high-speed video navigation systems.
Algorithm for creating interactive educational films
A group of specialists led by Candidate of Technical Sciences I. Omarov has been working on the development of algorithms and
Interactive video management in recent years. We have already managed to create and work out a pseudo-interactive video system and lay the foundations for creating a full-fledged interactive video.
The purpose of these developments is to create dynamic video films where the viewer himself strengthens or weakens the plot according to his mood. There are currently working solutions for interactive educational films. On the one hand, this is close to practical needs, and on the other hand, it is not as expensive as creating a game video. So, we are making a pseudo-interactive video. First, we write a branched script, we make a diagram of script blocks. In interactive video, scenario blocks can be easily interchanged, so each scenario block must be created as a full-fledged film in compliance with all the laws of dramaturgy.
After preparing the script, the movie is filmed and edited inside the script blocks. The result is a large number of video files that are not interconnected, but each of which is a mini-movie in itself.
After that, the video is converted to flv format – flash video. And each video file is embedded in a pre-created flash video player with a prepared interface and a set of pre-hard-wired settings, such as frame rate, image and sound compression ratio.
As a result, we have a lot of sfw files, each of which contains a complete set of video players: rewind, start, stop, sound control and pause buttons. All these files must be combined into a single structure. The Director MX environment from the well-known Adobe Company is suitable for this.
Here another difficulty may arise. If the formats (swf and flv) are open and we can write any program code to manage video in this format, then the Director MX environment operates with closed code files. This means that they have no tutorials, no recommendations, no file structure in the public domain, and no standards. All this leads to continuous failures in the program, but there are no other options for working yet.
The result is a workable interface that allows you to navigate through hundreds of video clips while building your movie. It looks like an interface within an interface: one navigation system for managing video fragments, the second for managing video. The whole project looks like a single file with a size of 3-4 GB, which allows you to fit it on a DVD.
But the resulting DVD cannot be viewed on TV because the resulting file is not a video format! But it is ideal for working on a computer. Since only educational films are created in this format so far, few people will want to watch them lying on the couch. In addition, such films are equipped with a system of interactive tests. To move through the story, you need to answer a series of questions. If the answers are wrong, the user is sent to that section of the film, the material from which they have not yet mastered.
Of course, the system is still cumbersome, requiring a computer with a DVD drive, which narrows the audience for films. But work is underway to improve the system, optimize navigation, ease of transition from one segment to another. This will help the introduction of a video search system that finds the desired frame by key phrases, for which it is necessary to solve problems with automatic search for the frame boundary and tracking intraframe objects. It is also necessary to translate into Russian the English system for marking up sound and video using headers when forming video archives.
These tasks have already been partially solved in the USA. There, similar systems are used to train football players. A video of the match is made, and then the system tracks the actions of each player frame by frame. The coach gets the opportunity to visually show and analyze together with the team all the omissions in the game and ways to eliminate them in the future.
