Abstract: Additional constituents for the representation of multimedia content gained more and more attention. For example, the amount of cinemas equipped with additional devices (e.g., ambient light, vibrating seats, wind generators, water sprayers, heater/coolers) that stimulate senses going beyond audition and vision increases. On the content side the MPEG-V standard specifies – among others – Sensory Effect Metadata (SEM) which provides means to describe sensory effects such as wind, vibration, light, etc. to be attached to audio-visual content and, thus, offering an enhanced and immersive experience for the user. However, there is a lack of a common set of test content allowing for various subjective user studies and verification across different test sites. In this paper we provide our dataset comprising a number of videos from different genres enriched with MPEG-V compliant Sensory Effect Metadata descriptions. Furthermore, we describe possible test setups using off-the-shelf hardware for conducting subjective quality assessments.

Abstract: More and more content in various formats becomes available via the WorldWideWeb (WWW). Currently availableWeb browsers are able to access and interpret these contents (i.e., Web videos, text, image, and audio). These contents stimulate only senses like audition or vision. Recently, it has been proposed to stimulate also other senses while consuming multimedia content, through so-called sensory effects. These sensory effects aim to enhance the ambient experience by providing effects such as light, wind, vibration, etc. The effects are represented as Sensory Effect Metadata (SEM) description which is associated to multimedia content and is rendered on devices like fans, vibration chairs, or lamps. In this paper we present two subjective quality assessments which comprise sensory effects, such as light, in the area of the WWW and their results achieved. The first assessment evaluates the influence of light effects on the Quality of Experience (QoE). The second assessment measures the impact of different settings for the color calculation on the viewing experience. Furthermore, we describe a Web browser plug-in for Mozilla Firefox which is able to render such sensory effects that are provided via the WWW.

Abstract: Multimedia content is increasingly used in every area of our life. Still, each type of content only stimulates the visual and/or the hearing system. Thus, the user experience depends only on those two stimuli. In this paper we introduce a standard which offers the possibility to add additional effects to multimedia content. Furthermore, we present a multimedia player and a Web browser plug-in which uses this standard to stimulate further senses by using additional sensory effects (i.e., wind, vibration, and light) to enhance the user experience resulting in a unique, worthwhile sensory experience.

Abstract: This paper describes a toolset for the authoring, simulating, and rendering of multimedia content annotated with Sensory Effect Metadata (SEM) descriptions as specified in Part 3 of the MPEG V standard. This part of MPEG-V standardizes the description of sensory effects (e.g., light, wind) in order to be rendered on sensory devices (e.g., fans, vibration chairs) aiming at generating a sensory experience stimulating possibly all human senses. Our implementation comprises a toolset to author sensory effects associated with multimedia content and the simulation thereof. Furthermore, it includes a library, a standalone player, and a Web browser plug-in which enables the playback and rendering of sensory effects on off-the-shelf rendering devices and in various contexts. All software modules are available under the GNU General Public License (GPL) v3 and the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) v3 respectively.

Abstract: In this tutorial we present dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP ranging from content creation to consumption. It particular, it provides an overview of the recently ratified MPEG-DASH standard, how to create content to be delivered using DASH, its consumption, and the evaluation thereof with respect to competing industry solutions. The tutorial can be roughly clustered into three parts. In part I we will provide an introduction to DASH, part II covers content creation, delivery, and consumption, and, finally, part III deals with the evaluation of existing (open source) MPEG-DASH implementations compared to state-of-art deployed industry solutions.

Abstract: This paper introduces the concept of sensory experience by utilizing sensory effects such as wind or lighting as another dimension which contributes to the quality of the user experience. In particular, we utilize a representation format for sensory effects that are attached to traditional multimedia resources such as audio, video, and image contents. Sensory effects (e.g., wind, lighting, explosion, heat, cold) are rendered on special devices (e.g., fans, ambient lights, motion chair, air condition) in synchronization with the traditional multimedia resources and shall stimulate other senses than audition and vision (e.g., mechanoreception, equilibrioception, thermoreception), with the intention to increase the users Quality of Experience (QoE). In particular, the paper provides a comprehensive introduction into the concept of sensory experience, its assessment in terms of the QoE, and related standardization and implementation efforts. Finally, we will highlight open issues and research challenges including future work.

Abstract: We propose a video browser facilitating known-item search in a single video. Key frames are presented as four images at a time and can be navigated quickly in both forward and backward directions using a slider. Alternatively, key frames can be displayed automatically at different frame rates. The user may choose between three mappings of key frames to the four key frame widgets based on video time stamps and color similarity.

Abstract: In this paper we evaluate a 3D cylindrical interface that arranges image thumbnails by visual similarity for the purpose of image browsing. Through a user study we compare the performance of this interface to the performance of a common scrollable 2D list of thumbnails in a grid arrangement. Our evaluation shows that the 3D Cylinder interface enables significantly faster visual search and is the preferred search interface for the majority of tested users.

Abstract: With users increasingly using their mobile devices such as smartphones as digital photo albums, effective methods for managing these collections are becoming increasingly important. Standard solutions provide only limited facilities for organising, browsing and searching image collections on mobile devices, making it challenging and time-consuming to locate images of interest. In this demo paper, we present an intuitive interface for organising and browsing image collections on mobile devices. Images are arranged on a 3D globe according to colour similarity. To avoid image overlap image thumbnails are placed on a regular grid structure while large image collections are organised using a hierarchical data structure. Through multi-touch user interaction image browsing can be performed in an intuitive and effective manner.

Abstract: Interactive image and video search tools typically use a grid-like arrangement of thumbnails for preview purpose. Such a display, which is commonly known as storyboard, provides limited flexibility at interactive search and it does not optimally exploit the available screen estate. In this paper we design and evaluate alternatives to the common two-dimensional storyboard. We take advantage of 3D graphics in order to present image thumbnails in cylindrical arrangements. Through a user study we evaluate the performance of these interfaces in terms of visual search time and subjective performance.

Abstract: The design of interactive systems, especially in distributed research projects, is a challenging process in which many concepts are developed with successful outcomes but also with dissatisfying results. In order to structure and relay knowledge about good or bad approaches, design patterns are a well-known instrument in research and development. Due to the condition that a design pattern must be easy to read, different stakeholders in the system engineering and design process are able to understand the described concepts without the need of specific expert knowledge . In distributed projects, application design knowledge may be scattered and documented in different manners. This means, before we can start formulating patterns, we need to discover and gather the available and partially concealed design knowledge. Since these fragments of knowledge may not always be accurately formulated for being used as design patterns, we seek for a collaborative method for collecting and formulating early findings together with established design knowledge. In this paper we present a concept of an evolutionary process for capturing, formulating, refining and validating design patterns. Our approach aims at involving as many stakeholders as possible in order to shape a pattern language over a project’s lifetime in a collaborative process allowing facile participation. We implement our approach in the scope of the EU research project BRIDGE that aims at supporting inter-agency collaboration during emergency response. We close with a discussion of the current state and envisioned next steps in order to foster our considerations.

Abstract: Multimedia is ubiquitously available online with large amounts of video increasingly consumed through Web sites such as YouTube or Google Video. However, online multimedia typically limits users to visual/auditory stimulus, with onscreen visual media accompanied by audio. The recent introduction of MPEG-V proposed multi-sensory user experiences in multimedia environments, such as enriching video content with so-called sensory effects like wind, vibration, light, etc. In MPEG-V, these sensory effects are represented as Sensory Effect Metadata (SEM), which is additionally associated to the multimedia content. This paper presents three user studies that utilize the sensory effects framework of MPEG-V, investigating the emotional response of users and enhancement of Quality of Experience (QoE) of Web video sequences from a range of genres with and without sensory effects. In particular, the user studies were conducted in Austria and Australia to investigate whether geography and cultural differences affect users’ elicited emotional responses and QoE.

Abstract: Nowadays video is an important part of the Web and Web sites like YouTube, Hulu, etc. count millions of users consuming their content every day. However, these Web sites mainly use media players based on proprietary browser plug-ins (i.e., Adobe Flash) and do not leverage adaptive streaming systems. This paper presents a seamless integration of the recent MPEG standard on Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) in the Web using the HTML5 video element. Therefore, we present DASHJS, a JavaScript-based MPEG-DASH client which adopts the Media Source API of Google’s Chrome browser to present a flexible and potentially browser independent DASH client. Furthermore, we present the integration of WebM based media segments in DASH giving a detailed description of the used container format structure and a corresponding Media Presentation Description (MPD). Our preliminary evaluation demonstrates the bandwidth adaption capabilities to show the effectiveness of the system.

Abstract: We evaluate the performance of several routing protocols for mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) in an emergency response scenario. The simulated scenario uses a disaster area mobility model and a wireless shadowing model to represent realistic first responder movements in a hybrid indoor/outdoor environment. The resulting scenario imposes some challenges on the MANET routing protocols such as intermittent connectivity and network partitions. The simulation results show that nodes have diverse connectivity characteristics which are challenging for state-of-the-art MANET routing protocols.

Abstract: This paper presents a new method for estimating the level of service (LOS) on motorways in the compressed video domain. The method performs statistical computations on motion vectors of MPEG4 encoded video streams within a predefined region of interest to determine a set of four motion features describing the speed and density of the traffic stream. These features are fed into a Gaussian radial basis function network to classify the corresponding LOS. To improve the classification results, vectors of moving objects are clustered and outliers are eliminated. The proposed method is designed to be executed on a server system, where a large number of camera live streams can be analyzed in parallel in real-time. Evaluations with a comprehensive set of real-world training and test data from an Austrian motorway have shown an average accuracy of 86.7% on the test data set for classifying all four LOS levels. With a mean execution time of 48 microseconds per frame on a common server, hundreds of video streams can be analyzed in real-time.

Abstract: We demonstrate our novel video-based real-time traffic event notification and verification system LOOK2. It generates fast and reliable traffic information about relevant traffic state and road conditions changes on observed roads. It utilizes installed road-side sensors providing low-level traffic and environmental data, as well as video sensors which gain high-level traffic information from live video analysis. Spatio-temporal data fusion is applied on all available traffic and environmental data to gain reliable traffic information. This traffic information is published by a DATEXII compliant web service to a web-based traffic desk application. Road network and traffic channel operators receive real-time and relevant traffic event notifications by using this application. The system also enables a visual verification of the notified situations.

Abstract: This paper presents a novel method for video-based traffic state detection on motorways performed on smart cameras. Camera calibration parameters are obtained from the known length of lane markings. Mean traffic speed is estimated from Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) optical flow method using a robust outlier detection. Traffic density is estimated using a robust statistical counting method. Our method has been implemented on an embedded smart camera and evaluated under different road and illumination conditions. It achieves a detection rate of more than 95% for stationary traffic.