Year: 2004
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Distributed multimedia supports a symbiotic infotainment duality, i.e. the ability to transfer information to the user, yet also provide the user with a level of satisfaction.As multimedia is ultimately produced for the education and / or enjoyment of viewers, the user's-perspective concerning the presentation quality is surely of equal importance as objective Quality of Service (QoS) technical parameters, to defining distributed multimedia quality.In order to extensively measure the user-perspective of multimedia video quality, we introduce an extended model of distributed multimedia quality that segregates quality into three discrete levels: the network-level, the media-level and content-level, using two distinct quality perspectives: the userperspective and the technical-perspective.Since experimental questionnaires do not provide continuous monitoring of user attention, eye tracking was used in our study in order to provide a better understanding of the role that the human element plays in the reception, analysis and synthesis of multimedia data.Results showed that video content adaptation, results in disparity in user video eye-paths when: i) no single / obvious point of focus exists; or ii) when the point of attention changes dramatically.Accordingly, appropriate technical-and user-perspective parameter adaptation is implemented, for all quality abstractions of our model, i.e. networklevel (via simulated delay and jitter), media-level (via a technical-and userperspective manipulated region-of-interest attentive display) and content-level (via display-type and video clip-type).Our work has shown that user perception of distributed multimedia quality cannot be achieved by means of purely technicalperspective QoS parameter adaptation. Problem Statement and Research AimCurrent multimedia communication systems are inherently unsuited for the transport of loss tolerant and delay intolerant multimedia data.Consequently objective multimedia quality, determined by resourse allocation, varies widely between users, making the individual the ultimate judge of multimedia quality -it is his/her perception of quality that ultimately determines what defines acceptable multimedia quality.It is therefore only by considering the human element in multimedia communications that a true end-to-end quality-assured architectures will be possible.Moreover, previous research has indicated that if perceptual quality requirements are taken into account in the multimedia transmission, then potential resource savings can be obtained, resulting in more efficient and streamlined communication mechanisms that will take into account user requirements, the nature of the data being transported, as well as the networking environment over which this communication takes place.To extensively measure the user's perception of multimedia quality, user perception should be measured across a range of quality abstractions. Variation of relevant technical-and user-perspective parameters is required
Author: Stephen R. Gulliver
Language: English
Subfield: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W97834860