Abstract: Visual information retrieval (VIR) is an active and vibrant research area, which attempts at providing means for organizing, indexing, annotating, and retrieving visual information (images and videos) from large, unstructured repositories. The goal of VIR is to retrieve matches ranked by their relevance to a given query, which is often expressed as an example image and/or a series of keywords. During its early years (1995-2000), the research efforts were dominated by content-based approaches contributed primarily by the image and video processing community. During the past decade, it was widely recognized that the challenges imposed by the lack of coincidence between an image's visual contents and its semantic interpretation, also known as semantic gap, required a clever use of textual metadata (in addition to information extracted from the image's pixel contents) to make image and video retrieval solutions efficient and effective. The need to bridge (or at least narrow) the semantic gap has been one of the driving forces behind current VIR research. Additionally, other related research problems and market opportunities have started to emerge, offering a broad range of exciting problems for computer scientists and engineers to work on. In this introductory book, we focus on a subset of VIR problems where the media consists of images, and the indexing and retrieval methods are based on the pixel contents of those images -- an approach known as content-based image retrieval (CBIR). We present an implementation-oriented overview of CBIR concepts, techniques, algorithms, and figures of merit. Most chapters are supported by examples written in Java, using Lucene (an open-source Java-based indexing and search implementation) and LIRE (Lucene Image REtrieval), an open-source Java-based library for CBIR.

Abstract: This paper provides an overview of our research conducted in the area of Sensory Experience including our implementations using MPEG-V Part 3 entitled ”Sensory Information”. MPEG-V Part 3 introduces Sensory Experience as a tool to increase the Quality of Experience by annotating traditional multimedia data with sensory effects. These sensory effects are rendered on special devices like fans, vibration chairs, ambient lights, scent disposers, water sprayers, or heating/cooling devices stimulating senses beyond the traditional ones. The paper's main focus is on the end-to-end aspects including the generation, transmission, and synchronized rendering of sensory effects with the traditional multimedia data taking movie clips as an example. Therefore, we present in this paper an open source tool chain that provides a complete end-to-end sensory effect generation and consumption framework. Furthermore, we summarize results from various subjective quality assessments conducted in this area. Finally, we point out research challenges that may encourage further research within this emerging domain.

Abstract: Multimedia delivery over the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is currently very popular and with MPEGs' Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) a standard is available to provide interoperability and enable large-scale deployments using existing infrastructures (servers, proxies, caches, etc.). This paper identifies some issue when multiple DASH clients compete for a bandwidth bottleneck when transparent proxy caches are deployed. Therefore, we propose a fair share adaptation scheme to be included within the client which – through experimental results – achieve a more efficient utilization of the bottleneck bandwidth and less quality switches.

Abstract: Dr. Aljosa Smolic joined Disney Research Zürich, Switzerland in 2009, as Senior Research Scientist and Head of the "Advanced Video Technology" group. Before he was Scientific Project Manager at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich- Hertz-Institut (HHI), Berlin, also heading a research group. He has been involved in several national and international research projects, where he conducted research in various fields of video processing, video coding, computer vision and computer graphics and published more than 100 refereed papers in these fields. In current projects he is responsible for research in 2D video, 3D video and free viewpoint video processing and coding.

Abstract: MPEG-M is a suite of ISO/IEC standards (ISO/IEC 23006) that has been developed under the auspices of Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). MPEG-M, also known as Multimedia Service Platform Technologies (MSPT), facilitates a collection of multimedia middleware APIs and elementary services as well as service aggregation so that service providers can offer users a plethora of innovative services by extending current IPTV technology toward the seamless integration of personal content creation and distribution, e-commerce, social networks and Internet distribution of digital media.

Abstract: Scalable Video Coding (SVC) in media streaming enables dynamic adaptation based on device capabilities and network conditions. In this paper, we investigate deployment options of SVC for Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) with a special focus on scalability options, which are relevant for dynamic adaptation, especially in wireless and mobile environments. We establish encoding recommendations and evaluate the performance of SVC with respect to spatial and quality scalability options and compare it to non-scalable Advanced Video Coding (AVC). Performance evaluations are performed for various encoder implementations with high-definition (1080p) content. We show that a hybrid approach with multiple independent SVC bitstreams can have advantages in storage requirements at comparable rate-distortion performance.

Abstract: Given that multimedia services are becoming increasingly popular, they are expected to play a dominant role for the Future Internet. In this context, it is essential that Content-Aware Networking (CAN) architectures, as envisaged in the frame of the Future Internet, explicitly address the efficient delivery and processing of multimedia content. This article proposes adopting a content-aware approach into the network infrastructure, thus making it capable of identifying, processing, and manipulating (i.e., adapting, caching, etc.) media streams and objects in real time towards Quality of Service/Experience (QoS/QoE) maximization. Our proposal is built upon the exploitation of scalable media coding technologies within such a content-aware networking environment and is discussed based on four representative use cases for media delivery (unicast, multicast, peer-to-peer, and adaptive HTTP streaming) and with respect to a selection of CAN challenges, specifically flow processing, caching/buffering, and QoS/QoE management.

Abstract: A novel visual multimedia content encryption method based on cellular automata (CA) is presented in this paper. The proposed algorithm is based on an attribute of the eXclusive-OR (XOR) logic gate, according to which, its application to a square-sized CA has the ability to reconstruct the original content of a CA after a preset number of iterations. The resulted encrypted image is a lossless representation of the original/plaintext image, i.e. there is no loss of either resolution or contrast. Experimental results indicate that the encrypted image does not contain any statistical information able to reveal the original image.

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: 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.