A Bayesian Framework for Semantic Content Characterization

Nuno Vasconcelos, Andrew Lippman

Abstract: Current systems for content filtering, browsing, and retrieval rely on low-level image descriptors which are unintuitive for most users. In this paper, we propose an alternative framework that exploits the structured nature of most content sources to achieve semantic content characterization, and lead to much more meaningful user interaction. Computationally, this framework is based on the principles of Bayesian inference and can be implemented efficiently with Bayesian networks. As an illustration of its potential we apply it to the domain of movie databases.