Abstract
Recordings of a succession of pictures over time can be displayed in a variety of different ways to show what they hold. The historical and most absorbing way is to display the images as a rapid succession of full screen frames. However different forms of presentation can be used to emphasize different attributes. The video streamer positions digitized frames of video sequentially in front of each other with a slight offset; visually this appears as an extrusion of the video stream in time which emphasizes differences along the side and top edges of adjacent frames. In this way the video streamer helps us see characteristics between frames and across shots such as transition types and cutting rhythms. While viewing the video stream one can select bounds of interest; this area can be changed using a rubbing motion along the stream. The micro-viewer shows us more precise frame to frame relationships, based on the portion of the video stream we have currently selected. The shot parser uses a frame differencing algorithm to offer a helpful element of machine assisted abstract analysis.