arXiv AI By Sultan Muratbek, Charisse Ivana Yeung, Chanwut Kittivorawong, Alvin Cheung

Concord: A Video Relational Algebra for Cross-Modal Query Optimization

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Concord introduces a Video Relational Algebra (VRA) that models videos, transcripts, frames, and object tracks, enabling semantic video queries. It applies approximate optimizations to rewrite VRA queries, reducing large language model (MLLM) usage by processing transcripts or using detection and tracking instead of full-video MLLM joins. Experiments on soccer broadcasts and lectures show that Concord sends only a small fraction of video to the MLLM, cutting costs by up to 87%, and improves cross‑camera query accuracy from an F1 of .364 to .813 without any MLLM calls.

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