Abstract: The World Wide Web (WWW) is one of the main entry points to access and consume Internet content in various forms. In particular, the Web browser is used to access different types of media (i.e., text, image, audio, and video) and on some platforms is the only way to access the vast amount of information on the Web. Recently, it has been proposed to stimulate also other senses than vision or audition while consuming multimedia content through so- called sensory effects, with the aim to increase the user’s Quality of Experience (QoE). The effects are represented as Sensory Effects Metadata (SEM) which is associated to traditional multimedia content and is rendered (synchronized with the media) on sensory devices like fans, vibration chairs, lamps, etc. In this paper we provide a principal investigation of whether the sensory effects are ready for the WWW and, in anticipation of the result, we propose how to embed sensory effect metadata within Web content and the synchronized rendering thereof.

Abstract: In this paper we describe a metadata solution for a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) content distribution system termed NextShare. We outline the key motivating factors for our approach, detail the overall generic architecture we have developed and present the workflow for delivering metadata through Peer-to-Peer based content distribution. The paper also presents the metadata model we have developed and we describe in detail how all the content can be packetized and distributed using NextShare. Finally, a description of the core and optional metadata attributes which may be utilized within the system is provided.

Abstract: MPEG has developed various technologies for multimedia transport, such as MPEG-2 Transport Stream (TS) and ISO Media Base File Format. These technologies have been widely accepted and heavily used by various industries and applications, such as digital broadcasting, audio and video transport over the Internet, mobile phones, etc. In recent years, the Internet has become an important channel for the delivery of multimedia. As HTTP is widely used on the Internet, it has recently been used extensively for the delivery of multimedia content. However, there is no standard for HTTP- based streaming of MPEG media. MPEG intends to standardize a solution that addresses this need. This paper provides an overview of the recent Call of Proposals (CfP) for HTTP Streaming of MPEG Media, a new work item within ISO/IEC MPEG. In particular, it will provide an overview of existing systems and the outcome of the evaluation of the aforementioned CfP which has been conducted during the 93rd MPEG meeting in July 2010.

Abstract: The demand for access to advanced, distributed media resources is nowadays omnipresent due to the availability of Internet connectivity almost anywhere, anytime, and with a huge amount of different devices. This calls for rethinking of the current Internet architecture by making the network aware of which content is actually transported. This paper introduces Scalable Video Coding (SVC) as a tool for Content-Aware Networks (CANs) which is currently researched as part of the EU FP7 ALICANTE project. The architecture of ALICANTE with respect to SVC and CAN is reviewed, use cases are described, and, finally, research challenges and open issues are discussed.

Abstract: The aim of the MPEG‐21 standard, the so‐called Multimedia Framework, is to enable transparent and augmented use of multimedia resources across a wide range of networks, devices, user preferences, and communities, notably for trading (of bits). As such, it provides an important step in MPEG's standards evolution, i.e., the transaction of Digital Items among Users. This paper provides an overview of applications making use specifically of MPEG‐21 Digital Items and a more in‐depth presentation of a few selected applications in research and practice.

Abstract: In this tutorial we present immersive future media technologies ranging from 3D video to sensory experiences. The former targets stereo and multi-view video technologies whereas the latter aims at stimulating other senses than vision or audition enabling an advanced user experiences through sensory effects.

Abstract: H.264/SVC, the Scalable Video Coding extension of the H.264/AVC video coding standard, features spatial, quality and temporal scalability. Backwards compatibility with legacy decoding devices is maintained through an H.264/AVC compliant base layer, which represents the lowest quality of an H.264/SVC bit-stream. However, it is often desireable to also provide the higher quality layers to legacy H.264/AVC devices. This is achieved by a process commonly known as "bit-stream rewriting", which allows for an efficient H.264/SVC to H.264/AVC conversion by exploiting the similarities of the two codecs. This paper describes a demonstrator showing the advantages of including an improved version of the bit-stream rewriting tool from the existing JSVM H.264/SVC reference software in an H.264/SVC-based multimedia delivery system, by integrating it into a Media Aware Network Element.

Abstract: The Scalable Video Coding (SVC) extension of the H.264/AVC (AVC) video coding standard features spatial, quality and temporal scalability. Backwards compatibility with legacy decoding devices is maintained through an H.264/AVC compliant base layer, which represents the lowest quality of an SVC bit-stream. However, it is often desirable to also provide the higher quality layers to legacy H.264/AVC devices. This is achieved by a process commonly known as “bit-stream rewriting”, which allows for an efficient SVC to AVC conversion by exploiting the similarities of the two codecs. This paper introduces an improved version of the existing JSVM reference software rewriter (JSVM-rewriter). The improvements include a better run-time performance through parallel processing, as well as applicability in streaming scenarios. A detailed evaluation provides performance measurements for the improved rewriter and compares it to the existing JSVM-rewriter. The evaluation shows that notable performance improvements can be achieved using the presented approach. The paper concludes on how the rewriter could be further improved.

Abstract: This paper describes the CELTIC project on "Scalable Video Coding Impact on Networks" with the focus of designing a streaming system based on the Scalable Video Coding extension of the H.264/AVC standard. The system is designed to cope with streaming scenarios that can be classified in four use cases: session handover, network congestion, receiver heterogeneity and user driven adaptation. A complete overview of the architecture of the system is given. Two demonstration scenarios are described in detail, which point out the advantages of scalable video coding compared to single layer approaches in multimedia transmission and adaptation scenarios. A concluding section summarizes the work and provides an outlook to future work items.

Abstract: This paper compares handhelds based on the iPhone and Android operating systems in multimedia streaming scenarios. We simulate typical Internet network impairments, i.e. packet delay and packet loss, and evaluate their effects on the end devices. Additional evaluations include bandwidth overhead in icted by the different streaming approaches and traffic shape and fairness when both handhelds consume media simultaneously. Based on the quantitative evaluation, both approaches show weaknesses and strengths. A final qualitative discussion points out additional advantages for the streaming approach implemented in the iPhone operating system.

Abstract: H.264/SVC enables runtime-efficient scalability in the spatial, temporal and fidelity dimension. Existing adaptation mechanisms facilitate this to automatically adapt the H.264/ SVC stream to the current usage environment without any user interaction. This paper argues that the Quality of Experience (QoE) of the end user can be enhanced by enabling him to manually adjust the adaptation if he wishes to do so. An approach which enables this is presented and evaluated. It is shown that by facilitating this approach an increased QoE is provided compared to automatic adaptation approaches. Finally, future work indicates the next steps in order to implement this approach.

Abstract: In this paper, a novel low level feature for content based image retrieval is presented. The proposed feature structure combines color and spatial color distribution information. The combination of these two features in one vector classifies the proposed descriptor to the family of Composite Descriptors. In order to extract the color information, a fuzzy system is being used, which is mapping the number of colors that are included in the image into a custom palette of 8 colors. The way by which the vector of the proposed descriptor is being formed, describes the color spatial information contained in images. To be applicable in the design of large image databases, the proposed descriptor is compact, requiring only 48 bytes per image. Experiments presented in this paper demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique especially for Hand-Drawn Sketches.

Abstract: Why do people take pictures? While substantial work has been done on the intentions of people producing photos in specific domains (e.g. Flickr users or mobile phone cameras) the general case - arbitrary users taking photos with arbitrary devices - has not yet been investigated in detail. In this short paper, we present an exploratory study on the intentions and goals of people taking digital photos. 40 different specific photo taking situations of 10 people where investigated. We classified the situations and reflected them into context of existing work to investigate the applicability and usefulness of classifications existing for specific domains. Our findings show that applicability of existing models for small domains is limited and they indicate the need of a generalized taxonomy. We further identify hypotheses and research questions for future work in this area.

Abstract: Searching for images on the web is still an open problem. While multiple approaches have been presented, there has been surprisingly little work on the actual goals and intentions of users. In this poster we present our classification scheme for user goals in image search and describe our ongoing work focusing on identification and classification of user intentions during image search tasks.

Abstract: Recent work in TCP video streaming indicates that multimedia streaming via TCP provides satisfactory performance when the achievable TCP throughput is approximately twice the media bit rate. However, these conditions may not be achievable on the Internet, e.g., when the delivery path offers insufficient bandwidth or becomes congested due to competing traffic. Therefore, adaptive streaming for videos over TCP is required and a number of rate-control algorithms for video streaming have been proposed and evaluated in the literature. In this paper, we evaluate and compare three existing rate-control algorithms for TCP streaming in terms of the (PSNR) quality of the delivered video and in terms of the timeliness of delivery. The contribution of the paper is that, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first evaluation of TCP-based streaming in an Internet-like setting making use of the scalability features of the H.264/SVC video codec. Two simple bandwidth estimation algorithms and a priority-/deadline-driven approach are described to adapt the bit rates of, and transmit, the H.264/SVC video in a rate-distortion optimal manner. The results indicate that the three algorithms perform robustly in terms of video quality and timely delivery, both on under-provisioned links and in case of competing TCP flows. The priority-/deadline-driven technique is even more stable in terms of packet delays and jitter; thus, client buffers can be dimensioned more easily.

Abstract: TCP-based video streaming encounters difficulties in unreliable networks with unanticipated packet loss. In combination with high round trip times, the effective throughput deteriorates rapidly and TCP connection resets or stalls may occur. In this paper, we propose a client-driven video transmission scheme which utilizes multiple HTTP/TCP streams. The scheme is largely insensitive to unanticipated packet loss and thereby reduces throughput fluctuations. Since it is based on HTTP, the scheme can easily be deployed in existing network infrastructures. It fosters scalability on the server side by shifting complexity from the server to the clients. Certain features of request-response schemes allow maintaining fairness, despite of using multiple HTTP streams. Making use of TCP, the scheme inherently adapts to congested network links.

Abstract: The distribution of layered content over peer-to-peer networks becomes more important today as the users are consuming the content on terminals with various display capabilities and different network connections. For single-layer content distribution, the piece-picking algorithm only needs to ensure that content pieces are downloaded in time for display. When layered content is distributed over a peer-to-peer network, the piece-picking algorithm needs to be modified to ensure that the best possible quality is displayed while all desired pieces still have to be received before their deadline expires. In this paper, the piece-picking problem for layered content is analyzed and a number of piece-picking algorithms for layered content based on the solutions for the knapsack problem are presented. Furthermore, an evaluation of these algorithms is performed and possible applications are discussed.

Abstract: We introduce an easy-to-use video browsing tool which assists users in getting a quick overview of videos as well as in finding segments of interest. It provides a parallel and a tree-based view for browsing the content of videos -- or even video collections -- in a hierarchical, non-sequential manner. The tool has a plug-in architecture and can be extended both by further presentation methods and by video analysis algorithms.

Abstract: We present an algorithm for video scene detection based on the identification of recurring motion sequences within a video stream. The motion information is extracted in the compressed domain of H.264/AVC videos, no full decoding of the video stream is needed. Based on the motion information our algorithm identifies sequences of adjacent frames with similar motion. Throughout all identified motion sequences we are searching for recurring patterns of similar ones. The most recurring pattern is used for the segmentation of the video stream into scenes. The evaluation shows promising results.

Abstract: Peer-to-Peer systems are nowadays a very popular solution for multimedia distribution, as they provide significant cost benefits compared with traditional server-client distribution. Additionally, the distribution of scalable content enables the consumption of the content in a quality suited for the available bandwidth and the capabilities of the end-user devices. Thus, the distribution of scalable content over Peer-to-Peer networks is a very actual research topic. This paper presents an architecture for the distribution of scalable content in a fully distributed Peer-to-Peer network. The architectural description includes how the scalable layers of the content are mapped to the pieces distributed in the Peer-to-Peer system and detailed descriptions of the producer- and consumer-site architecture of the system. The presented system is to our knowledge the first open-source Peer-to-Peer network with full Scalable Video Coding support.