RIVER: A Real-Time Interaction Benchmark for Video LLMs

The rapid advancement of multimodal large language models has demonstrated impressive capabilities, yet nearly all operate in an offline paradigm, hindering real-time interactivity. Addressing this gap, we introduce the Real-tIme Video intERaction Bench (RIVER Bench), designed for evaluating online video comprehension. RIVER Bench introduces a novel framework comprising Retrospective Memory, Live-Perception, and Proactive Response tasks, closely mimicking interactive dialogues rather than responding to entire videos at once. We conducted detailed annotations using videos from diverse sources and varying lengths, and precisely defined the real-time interactive format. Evaluations across various model categories reveal that while offline models perform well in single question-answering tasks, they struggle with real-time processing. Addressing the limitations of existing models in online video interaction, especially their deficiencies in long-term memory and future perception, we proposed a general improvement method that enables models to interact with users more flexibly in real time. We believe this work will significantly advance the development of real-time interactive video understanding models and inspire future research in this emerging field.