Detection and Localization of Embedded Subtitles in a Video Stream

Valery, Grishkin; Jean, Sene

Videos with superimposed external subtitles constitute the major part of modern video content. However, there are quite a lot of diverse videos with embedded subtitles as well. In this regard, the problem arises of extracting and converting embedded subtitles into modern formats of external subtitles. Important steps in solving this problem are detection, localization, and binding of these subtitles to frames of the video stream. This paper proposes a method for detection and localization of embedded subtitles in video stream. The method is based on the search for static regions in the frames of the video stream and subsequent analysis of the connected areas inside them. Based on the results of this analysis, we determine whether a region belongs to the area of subtitles and localize text strings in the detected subtitles. The proposed method does not require large computational costs and can work in real time.