---
canonical: "https://yuanhaochen.dev/work/semantic-video"
path: "/work/semantic-video"
section: "Work"
title: "universal-semantic-video"
language: "en"
agentUse: "summary, retrieval, citation, hiring evaluation"
---

# universal-semantic-video

Tests whether video meaning can travel as a validated sidecar: segments, speakers, objects, rights, provenance, consent rules, and fallbacks.

Why this article exists

This repository asks what happens when video needs to move through many AI and human tools without losing meaning. Instead of proposing a new codec, player, or hosted service, it keeps media in existing delivery systems and adds a validated semantic layer on the side.

Problem

Video workflows already have containers, captions, streams, and provenance standards. They still struggle to preserve object meaning, segment intent, speaker context, rights, consent rules, and fallback behavior when a file moves between tools.

What shipped

JSON Schema for `.usv.json`, CLI init/validate/inspect/conformance commands, public-safe examples, WebVTT fallbacks, standards notes, roadmap, docs, and CI checks.

Evidence

The README documents the sidecar shape, conformance rules, standards posture, public-safety hook, and explicit pre-1.0 limitations.

Inspect path

Inspect `schema/usv.schema.json`, `examples/lite/`, `docs/spec/USV-Core-Conformance.md`, `docs/STANDARDS.md`, the CLI commands, and the CI workflow.

Boundary

USV is not a codec, player, hosted API, AI translation system, ASR/OCR pipeline, lip-sync tool, or native container embedding layer yet.

What changed

The useful unit became clearer: not a richer caption, but a small validated meaning layer that can survive tool boundaries without pretending to replace the media stack.

Next question

What would make semantic video evidence portable enough for real creative, localization, review, and rights workflows?

Open public repository

https://github.com/89325516/universal-semantic-video