Workflow Architecture for Interactive Video Management Systems

14th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems

In this paper we describe the tool supported specication and implementation of a multimedia communication protocol on parallel hardware. MCAM is an application layer protocol for movie control, access and management. We specify the full MCAM protocol together with ISO presentation and session layers in Estelle. Using a code generator, we derive parallel C++ code from the speci cation. The code is compiled and executed on a multiprocessor system under OSF 1 and on UNIX workstations. Measurements show the performance speedup gained by several di erent con gurations of parallel units. We also report on experiences with our methodology.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2013

The management of the massive amount of data in video-and multimedia workflows is a hard and expensive work that requires much personnel and technical resources. Our flexible and scalable open source middleware framework offers solution approaches for the automated handling of the ingest and the workflow by an automated acquisition of all available information. By using an XML format to describe the processes, we provide an easy, fast and well-priced solution without the need for specific human skills.

IEEE GLOBECOM 1998 (Cat. NO. 98CH36250), 1998

With the rapid convergence in telecommunications, computer, and TVIfilm industries, rigorous efforts are in progress for designing the emerging multimedia standard-MPEG-4. The main features of MPEG-4 z e its content-based interactiviry, ejjicient coding, and universal access. For realizing MPEG-4 based application oriented systems, various issues must be carefully addressed. This paper describes a full scale MPEG-4 based interactive multimedia system project underway at the Video Technology Center of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. This project aims to provide complete MPEG-4 based interactive services tailored to various applications. In order to do so, a number of key enabling technologies need to be investigated. These include encoding and decoding, multimedia server design, auser interface, and MPEG-4 stream transmission over high speed networks. The unique features ofthe project are: 1) to explore the feasibility of parallel and distributed technology using Network-of-Workstations (NOWs) to hinder thc intensive computation required for realtime encoding; 2) to provide flexibility of software-based encoding/decoding; 3) to design an intelligent transport service mechanism which can satisfy QoS requirement of MPEG-4.

ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 1995

We describe a system for storing, transmitting, and presenting digital movies in a computer network. The hardware used in the system is standard hardware, as found in typical workstations today; no special hardware is required, but if available it can be used to provide better performance The XMovie system has several innovative features. Frost, it contains a new algorithm for the gradual adaptation of the color lookup table during the presentation of the movie to ensure optimal color quality on low-end workstations. Second, it is a multistandard system supporting the compression techniques MPEG, Motion JPEG, and a newly developed extension to the well-known Color Cell Compression method. Third, it contains AdFEC, a new adaptable forward error correction method for our movie transmission protocol.

Ibm Systems Journal, 1997

In September 1993, the Canadian Institute for Telecommunications Research, in collaboration with the IBM Toronto Laboratory Centre for Advanced Studies, initiated a major project on Broadband Services. The goal of this major project is to provide the software technologies required for the development of distributed multimedia applications. Of particular interest are \presentational" applications where multimedia documents, stored in database servers, are retrieved by remote users over a broadband network. Emphasis is placed on e ciency and service exibility. By e ciency, w e mean the ability to support many users and many m ultimedia documents. As to service exibility, w e mean the application is able to support a wide range of quality of service requirements from the users, adapt to changing network conditions, and support multiple document t ypes. The research program consists of six constituent projects: multimedia data management, continuous media le server, quality of service negotiation and adaptation, scalable video encoding, synchronization of multimedia data, and project integration. These projects are investigated by a m ulti-disciplinary team from eight institutions across Canada. Multimedia news has been selected as a target application for development, and the results from the various projects have b e e n i n tegrated into a multimedia news prototype. In this paper, the system architecture, research results, and the prototyping e ort, are presented.

2003

Abstract Multimedia database systems require not only that correct results are delivered with acceptable delay, but also that they're delivered in real time with acceptable quality. A constraint-based rule language can serve as the foundation for providing this level of quality of service in video databases.

The introduction of digital video has lead to a wide range of new video applications, including storage for information systems. Even though interactivity enables browsing and instant playback for such systems, the high information density and the large amounts of data result in cumbersome searching to find the information of interest. To solve this problem, the CANDELA project explores the combination of video content analysis, storage and retrieval for distributed systems. The concept of generating high-level content descriptions spans a wide range of new application. In this paper we elaborate on some parts by using the surveillance application as a pilot. * This work is part of the European R&D program in software-intensive systems, ITEA.

Multimedia Information Storage and Management, 1990

Advanced multimedia applications call for integrated database system support for the management o f m ultimedia data. Traditional database management systems do not provide appropriate concepts and services for the integrated modeling, management, and interactive presentation of multimedia data. Our approach t o wards a multimedia database management system o ers presentation independence to applications, which is in line with traditional database system services like data independence and multiuser support. This new service is realized by the integration of appropriate concepts for continuous object management, the representation and presentation of multimedia data, and the execution of interactive end-user presentations into an open objectoriented database system. The resulting multimedia database system consists of database clients for the interactive presentation of multimedia data, which c a n b e adapted to particular needs of applications, and a database server for the e cient management of and access to multimedia data. 2 Chapter 1 dependent (continuous). We follow the de nition of 27] and refer with the term multimedia application to those applications which include both timedependent and time-independent media types. When looking at the di erent t ypes of multimedia applications one can nd different c haracteristics with regard to the challenging problems. In the following we give examples of some multimedia applications with interesting properties relevant in the framework of our work. With Video-On-Demand (VOD) applications users access video information from one or more remote servers. Recent d e v elopments for VOD systems support to a high degree the time-dependent presentation of a single media type, at the same time they neglect the editing, capturing, and modeling of single media types as well as multimedia compositions. VOD applications show l o w complexity with respect to presentation functionality as only videos are retrieved from the server and continuous data are delivered uni-directionally to the clients. At the same time VOD applications need high-performance storage and networking systems due to the high data volume of time-dependent m e d i a types. Another class of applications are computer games. They are based on interactivity b e t ween the user and the computer and can show high complexity. Games can be played locally or remotely by one or more players. Interactive games use branching techniques or advanced algorithms for interactivity 2 7 ]. Games are`custom made' and lay emphasis on the idea behind the game, the behavior of the interface, stability, and robustness. Video conferencing applications focus on real-time communication aspects and live synchronization of video and audio streams. The synchronization is in exible as these applications have to reproduce the data streams at a target system di erent from the source where the streams are captured. Video conferencing is concerned only with tightly coupled continuous video and audio streams. The realization of advanced video conferencing technology is to a high degree dependent on the development o f n e t working technology. Multimedia applications such as computer-based training, learning programs, and electronic encyclopedias require complex content modeling and speci c presentation techniques reconciled with individual user needs. This also applies to home shopping, ticket reservation, and electronic product catalogues. These applications use both discrete and continuous media types. They focus on the interactive presentation of multimedia information and are reasonable only in a m ulti-user environment i n w h i c h s e v eral users have access to the multimedia

Proceedings International Workshop on Multimedia Software Development, 1996

Research (CITR) 1 , we have developed a prototype system for remote access to News-on-Demand. This system allows the user to remotely access a multimedia database, containing news clips in the form of multimedia documents, over ATM and other types of networks. Special attention is given to quality of service (QoS) negotiation and adaptation. For instance, a given document may exist in different versions on different sites and possibly corresponding to different presentation qualities, such as video and audio quality, size of display and cost. A graphical interface is available for the user to select his preferences and provides the possibility of obtaining examples of specific quality features. The QoS negotiation and adaptation features allow for the selection of the best configuration for a given user request and for automatic adaptation in case of changes to the system parameters, such as network or server congestion. We present in this paper an abstract architectural design of our adaptive distributed multimedia system for remote access to multimedia databases. This design focuses on the aspects of the system which are essential for QoS negotiation and adaptation, which is our main concern in the ongoing CITR research project. The paper gives a functional overview of the system and details its structural and behavioral aspects. An abstract application programming interface (API) is given and issues related to the transition from the abstract system design to an implementation are discussed.