Abstract: Existing and future media ecosystems need to cope with the ever-increasing heterogeneity of networks, devices, and user characteristics collectively referred to as (usage) context. The key to address this problem is media adaptation to various and dynamically changing contexts in order to provide a service quality that is regarded as satisfactory by the end user. The adaptation can be performed in many ways and at different locations, e.g., at the edge and within the network resulting in a substantial number of issues to be integrated within a media ecosystem. This paper describes research challenges, key innovations, target research outcomes, and achievements so far for edge and in-network media adaptation by introducing the concept of Scalable Video Coding (SVC) tunneling.

Abstract: In this report we describe our approach to the known-item search task for TRECVID 2012. We describe how we index available metadata and how we gain additional information about the videos using content-based analysis. A rule-based query expansion and query reduction method is applied to increase the number of relevant videos in automatic runs. Furthermore, we describe an approach for quick, interactive filtering of large result sets. We outline how the parameters of our system were tuned for the IACC dataset and discuss our TRECVID 2012 KIS results.

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate whether community-contributed multimedia content can be used to make video summaries of social events. We implemented an event summarization algorithm that uses photos from Flickr and videos from YouTube to compose summaries of well-known society events, which took place in the last three years. The comparison with a manually obtained ground truth shows a good coverage of the most important situations of these events. We do not claim to produce the best summaries possible, which may be compared to the work of a human director, but we analyze what can be achieved with community-contributed content by now.

Abstract: We participate in the Video Browser Showdown with our easy-to-use video browsing tool. It can be used for getting a quick overview of videos as well as for simple Known Item Search (KIS) tasks. It offers a parallel and a tree-like browsing interface for navigating through the content of single videos or even small video collections in a hierarchical, non-sequential manner. We want to validate whether simple KIS tasks can be completed without a time consuming content analysis in advance.

Abstract: We present an algorithm for the summarization of social events with community-contributed content from Flickr and YouTube. A clustering algorithm groups content related to the searched event. Date information, GPS coordinates, user ratings and visual features are used to select relevant photos and videos. The composed event summaries are presented with our video browser.

Abstract: Default image browsing interfaces on touch-based mobile devices provide limited support for image search tasks. To facilitate fast and convenient searches we propose an alternative interface that takes advantage of 3D graphics and arranges images on a rotatable globe according to color similarity. In a user study we compare the new design to the iPad's image browser. Results collected from 24 participants show that for color-sorted image collections the globe can reduce search time by 23% without causing more errors and that it is perceived as being fun to use and preferred over the standard browsing interface by 70% of the participants.

Abstract: Image retrieval currently relies heavily on metadata and present search engines do not exploit spatial relations between images. Therefore searching for images of a certain location manually is a time consuming task. Typically there are pair wise spatial relations in an unsorted set of photos taken at the same location from different angles and different viewpoints. By identifying and indexing spatial relations of different photos an image search engine can provide additional results based on these relationships. This paper presents a novel approach to identify pair wise spatial relations between images and a method to index and search through the identified spatial relations. We further describe an application, which implements this robust and surprisingly simple technique.

Abstract: The distribution of audio-visual content over the Internet has become very popular in recent years. However, due to the bandwidth requirements of videos in high definition, a costefficient distribution is desirable. In this paper we present a low-cost consumer electronics set-top box for streaming live video content using cost-efficient P2P networks. The main features of the set-top box include content discovery, highquality playback, easy user management, and social interaction.

Abstract: The distribution of audio-visual content over the Internet has become very popular in recent years. However, due to the bandwidth requirements of videos in high definition, a costefficient distribution is desirable. In this paper we present a low-cost consumer electronics set-top box for streaming live video content using cost-efficient P2P networks. The main features of the set-top box include content discovery, highquality playback, easy user management, and social interaction.

Abstract: This paper introduces a scalable approach for efficient, low-cost multi-level Quality of Service (QoS) estimation in large overlay networks (ON). We modify an existing distributed partitioning algorithm [1], and use it to create ”QoS maps”. QoS maps empower applications to quickly predict several QoS metrics for any given route, and to obtain multiple alternative routes to any target node in the ON. We show that our modifications of the partitioning algorithm permit the aggregation of large hubs, but still preserve the sublinear runtime of the original heuristic. Simulations with large ONs are performed to evaluate the proposed approach and demonstrate its scalability. Finally, we outline our estimation algorithm that we use to predict QoS and perform QoS aware routing in any given ON.

Abstract: This work presents a new dimension for Quality of Experience (QoE), i.e., sensory information. Sensory information enhances the user experience by providing additional so-called sensory effects (e.g., wind, light, vibration) which are rendered together with multimedia content. Furthermore, the work describes two subjective quality assessments conducted in this area including their results.

Abstract: More and more multimedia content is becoming available via the World Wide Web (WWW). These contents stimulate only senses like hearing 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 at enhancing the user’s viewing experience by providing effects such as light, wind, vibration, etc. These effects are represented as Sensory Effect Metadata (SEM) which is associated to multimedia content and is rendered on devices like fans, lamps, or vibration chairs. In this paper, we present a plug-in for Web browsers which is able to render such sensory effects provided via Web content, and we describe a demonstrator that uses this plug-in to control an amBX system.

Abstract: The distribution of audio-visual content over the Internet has become very popular in recent years. However, due to the bandwidth requirements of videos in high definition, a costefficient distribution is desirable. In this paper we present a low-cost consumer electronics set-top box for streaming live video content using cost-efficient P2P networks. The main features of the set-top box include content discovery, highquality playback, easy user management, and social interaction.