User strategies in video retrieval: a case study

Abstract. In this paper we present the results of a user study that was conducted in combination with a submission to TRECVID 2003. Search behavior of students querying an interactive video-retrieval system was analyzed. 242 Searches by 39 students on 24 topics were assessed. Questionnaire data, logged user actions on the system, and a quality measure of each search provided by TRECVID were studied. Analysis of the results at various stages in the retrieval process suggests that retrieval based on transcriptions of the speech in video data adds more to the average precision of the result than content-based retrieval. The latter is particularly useful in providing the user with an overview of the dataset and thus an indication of the success of a search.