MPEG-4's binary format for scene description

The new MPEG-4 standard provides a suite of functionalities under one standard: streaming multimedia content, good compression, and user interactivity. This paper provides an introduction to the use and internal mechanisms of these functions.     

MPEG-4 video verification model: A video encoding/decoding algorithm based on content representation

MPEG-4 video aims at providing standardized core technologies allowing efficient storage, transmission and manipulation of video data in multimedia environments. This is a challenging task given the broad spectrum of requirements and applications in multimedia. In order to achieve this broad goal, rather than a solution for a narrow set of applications, functionalities common to clusters of applications are under consideration. Therefore, video group activities in MPEG-4 aim at providing solutions in the form of tools and algorithms enabling functionalities such as efficient compression, object scalability, spatial and temporal scalability, and error resilience. The standardized MPEG-4 video will provide a toolbox containing tools and algorithms bringing solutions to the above-mentioned functionalities and more.

The current focus of the MPEG-4 video group is the development of the Video Verification Models. A Verification Model (VM) is a common platform with a precise definition of encoding and decoding algorithms which can be presented as tools addressing specific functionalities. It evolves through time by means of core experiments. New algorithms/tools are added to the VM and old algorithms/tools are replaced in the VM by successful core experiments. Until October 1996, the MPEG-4 video group has focused its efforts on a single VM which has gradually evolved from version 1.0 to version 4.0, and in the process has addressed increasing number of desired functionalities, namely, content based object and temporal scalabilities, spatial scalability, error resilience, and compression efficiency.

This paper gives an overview of version 4.0 of the Video VM in MPEG-4. In doing so, issues, algorithms, and majors tools used in the development of this future video standard are discussed.     

Shape representation and coding of visual objets in multimedia applications — An overview

Emerging multimedia applications have created the need for new functionalities in digital communications. Whereas existing compression standards only deal with the audio-visual scene at a frame level, it is now necessary to handle individual objects separately, thus allowing scalable transmission as well as interactive scene recomposition by the receiver. The future MPEG-4 standard aims at providing compression tools addressing these functionalities. Unlike existing frame-based standards, the corresponding coding schemes need to encode shape information explicitly. This paper reviews existing solutions to the problem of shape representation and coding. Region and contour coding techniques are presented and their performance is discussed, considering coding efficiency and rate-distortion control capability, as well as flexibility to application requirements such as progressive transmission, low-delay coding, and error robustness.     

MPEG-Past and Future

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MPEG-4: a multimedia compression standard for interactiveapplications and services

The Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG), which produced the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video and audio compression standards, is developing the MPEG-4 standard. MPEG-4 targets interactive multimedia applications and will become a standard in 1999. As well as an increased compression efficiency, MPEG-4 will also offer content-based functionality, i.e. the possibility of accessing and manipulating individual objects in the picture. Furthermore, MPEG-4 will offer possibilities for efficient video storage and for transmission over poor audio and video channels at bit rates between 5 kbit/s and 4 Mbit/s. This paper gives an overview of the state of the art of MPEG-4 development, concentrating especially on video content-based functionality, which is so important for interactive applications     

Fast MPEG-4 Motion Estimation: Processor Based and Flexible VLSI Implementations

MPEG-4 is a new multimedia standard combining interactivity, object-based natural and synthetic digital video, audio and computer-graphics. For the implementation of the video part of the MPEG-4 standard a high degree of flexibility is required, where the motion estimation requires the highest part of the computational power. Therefore, in this paper fast algorithms for MPEG-4 motion estimation are evaluated in terms of visual quality and computational power requirements for processor based implementations. Due to the object-based nature of MPEG-4 also new VLSI architectures for MPEG-4 motion estimation are required. Therefore known motion estimation architectures are evaluated on their capability of being modified for MPEG-4 support. Based on this evaluation a new dedicated, but flexible MPEG-4 motion estimation architecture targeted for low-power handheld applications is presented, which resulted to be advantageous to processor based implementations by magnitudes of order.     

MPEG-4: Why,what, how and when?

The MPEG-4 Version 1 standard has been recently finalized. Since MPEG-4 adopted an object-based audiovisual representation model with hyperlinking and interaction capabilities and supports both natural and synthetic content, it is expected that this standard will become the information coding playground for future multimedia applications. This paper intends to give an overview on the MPEG-4 motivations, objectives, achievements, process and workplan, providing a stimulating starting point for more detailed reading.     

Subjective evaluation of MPEG-4 video codec proposals: Methodological approach and test procedures

A new audio-visual coding standard, MPEG-4, is currently under development. MPEG-4 will address not only compression, but also completely new audio-video coding functionalities related to content-based interactivity and universal access. As part of the MPEG-4 standardization process, in November, 1995 assessments were performed on technologies proposed for incorporation in the standard. These assessments included formal subjective tests, as well as expert panel evaluations. This paper describes the MPEG-4 video formal subjective tests. Since MPEG-4 addresses new coding functionalities, and also operates at bit-rates lower than ever subjectively tested before on a large scale, standard ITU test methods were not directly applicable. These methods had to be adapted, and even new test methods devised, for the MPEG-4 video subjective tests. We describe here the test methods used in the MPEG-4 video subjective tests, how the tests were carried out, and how the test results were interpreted. We also evaluate the successes and shortcomings of the MPEG-4 video subjective tests, and suggest possible improvements for future tests. The MPEG-4 video subjective tests were successful, providing the MPEG community with critical information to guide in the selection of technologies for inclusion in the video part of the MPEG-4 standard.     

Segmentation of moving objects in image sequence: A review

Segmentation of objects in image sequences is very important in many aspects of multimedia applications. In second-generation image/video coding, images are segmented into objects to achieve efficient compression by coding the contour and texture separately. As the purpose is to achieve high compression performance, the objects segmented may not be semantically meaningful to human observers. The more recent applications, such as content-based image/video retrieval and image/video composition, require that the segmented objects be semantically meaningful. Indeed, the recent multimedia standard MPEG-4 specifies that a video is composed of meaningful video objects. Although many segmentation techniques have been proposed in the literature, fully automatic segmentation tools for general applications are currently not achievable. This paper provides a review of this important and challenging area of segmentation of moving objects. We describe common approaches including temporal segmentation, spatial segmentation, and the combination of temporal-spatial segmentation. As an example, a complete segmentation scheme, which is an informative part of MPEG-4, is summarized.     

MPEG digital video-coding standards

The efficient digital representation of image and video signals has been the subject of considerable research over the past 20 years. Digital video-coding technology has developed into a mature field and products have been developed that are targeted for a wide range of emerging applications, such as video on demand, digital TV/HDTV broadcasting, and multimedia image/video database services. With the increased commercial interest in video communications, the need for international image- and video-compression standards arose. To meet this need, the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) was formed to develop coding standards. MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video-coding standards have attracted much attention worldwide, with an increasing number of very large scale integration (VLSI) and software implementations of these standards becoming commercially available. MPEG-4, the most recent MPEG standard that is still under development, is targeted for future content-based multimedia applications. We provide an overview of the MPEG video-coding algorithms and standards and their role in video communications. We review the basic concepts and techniques that are relevant in the context of the MPEG video-compression standards and outline MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video-coding algorithms. The specific properties of the standards related to their applications are presented, and the basic elements of the forthcoming MPEG-4 standard are also described. We also discuss the performance of the standards and their success in the market place     

Instruction Set Extensions for MPEG-4 Video

This paper describes instruction set extensions for the acceleration of MPEG-4 algorithms on programmable (RISC-) CPUs. MPEG-4 standardizes audio and video compression schemes for a variety of bit rates and scenarios. As MPEG-4 targets a much broader range of different applications than previously defined hybrid video coding standards like H.263 or MPEG-2, it employs a much higher number of different algorithms and coding modes. Therefore, MPEG-4 implementations will require a more software-oriented approach to be efficient. However, the total computational load for an optimized implementation of an MPEG-4 video codec is expected to exceed the performance levels of today's multimedia signal processors, making further hardware acceleration a necessity. For that purpose, we propose a number of instruction set extensions that add function-specific blocks to the data path of a CPU. These dedicated modules are highly adapted to the most computation-intensive processing schemes of MPEG-4, such as DCT, motion compensation, padding, shape coding, or bitstream parsing. The increased functionality of basic instructions results in a significant speed-up over standard RISC instruction sets, thus making MPEG-4 implementations feasible on programmable processor platforms. Possible target architectures include VLIW multimedia processors, MIMD-style multiprocessors, or coprocessor architectures     

MPEG-4概述

从ISO/IEC14496的第一部分MPEG-4系统的体系结构出发,分别对MPEG-4标准中提供的主要工具进行了技术描述,包括对象描述框架、系统解码器模型(SDM)和传输多媒体集成框架(DMIF)、场景的二进制描述(BIFS)、同步层、视频对象和音频对象编码等.最后对MPEG-4系统的特性做出了小结并探讨了该标准的应用前景.     

基于对象的视频编码——MPEG－4

MPEG－4是一种新的基于对象的视频编码标准,可以广泛应用于多媒体通信中。文章从MPEG－4的视频压缩原理出发,介绍MPEG－4中采用的主要压缩方法及抗误码技术。     

MPEG-7的现状和发展

为了实现基于内容的多媒体信息检索，活动图像专家组MPEG制订了“多媒体内容描述接口”MPEG-7标准，与MPEG-1、2、4不同，MPEG-7不是一种新的编码标准，它独立于其它标准，运用MPEG-1、2、4中的工具和手段，同时为其服务。介绍了MPEG-7的研究背景、目标、研究内容以及应用领域。     

Single-Chip MPEG-2 422P@HL CODEC LSI With Multichip Configuration for Large Scale Processing Beyond HDTV Level

This paper proposes a new architecture for VASA, a single-chip MPEG-2 422P@HL CODEC LSI with multichip configuration for large scale processing beyond the HDTV level, and demonstrates its flexibility and usefulness. VASA is the world's first single-chip full-specs MPEG-2 422P@HL CODEC LSI with a multichip configuration. An LSI was successfully fabricated using the 0.13-mum eight-metal CMOS process. The architecture not only provides an MPEG-2 422P@HL CODEC but also large scale processing beyond the HDTV level for digital cinema and multiview/-angled live TV applications with a multichip configuration. The VASA implementations will lead to a new dimension in future high-quality, high-resolution digital multimedia entertainment.     

MPEG-21: The 21st century multimedia framework

The lack of interoperable (and thus standardized) solutions is stalling the deployment of advanced multimedia packaging and distribution applications although most of the individual technologies are indeed already present. This motivated MPEG (ISO/IEC JTCl SC29 WGI I) in June 2000 to start working on the definition of enabling normative technology for the multimedia applications of the 21st century: MPEG-21 "Multimedia Framework." MPEG-21's approach is to define a framework to support transactions that are interoperable and highly automated, specifically taking into account digital rights management (DRM) requirements and targeting multimedia access and delivery using heterogeneous networks and terminals. This article first outlines the context and background of the MPEG-21 initiative. Then, an overview of MPEG-21 technology is given. Subsequently, it is discussed how MPEG-21 can provide solutions for universal multimedia access (UMA). UMA is also one of the use cases that has led to the creation of a new part in MPEG-21 dealing with digital item adaptation. Finally, this article concludes with an overview of MPEG-21 related activities and an outlook on future developments.