Recent developments in visual quality monitoring by key performance indicators

In addition to traditional Quality of Service (QoS), Quality of Experience (QoE) poses a real challenge for Internet service providers, audio-visual services, broadcasters and new Over-The-Top (OTT) services. Therefore, objective audio-visual metrics are frequently being dedicated in order to monitor, troubleshoot, investigate and set benchmarks of content applications working in real-time or off-line. The concept proposed here, Monitoring of Audio Visual Quality by Key Performance Indicators (MOAVI), is able to isolate and focus investigation, set-up algorithms, increase the monitoring period and guarantee better prediction of perceptual quality. MOAVI artefacts Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are classified into four categories, based on their origin: capturing, processing, transmission, and display. In the paper, we present experiments carried out over several steps with four experimental set-ups for concept verification. The methodology takes into the account annoyance visibility threshold. The experimental methodology is adapted from International Telecommunication Union – Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) Recommendations: P.800, P.910 and P.930. We also present the results of KPI verification tests. Finally, we also describe the first implementation of MOAVI KPI in a commercial product: the NET-MOZAIC probe. Net Research, LLC, currently offers the probe as a part of NET-xTVMS Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and Cable Television (CATV) monitoring system.     

Automated qualitative assessment of multi-modal distortions in digital images based on GLZ

This paper introduces a novel approach to a qualitative assessment of images affected by multi-modal distortions. The idea is to assess the image quality perceived by an end user in an automatic way in order to avoid the usual time-consuming, costly and non-repeatable method of collecting subjective scores during a psycho-physical experiment. This is achieved by computing quantitative image distortions and mapping results on qualitative scores. Useful mapping models have been proposed and constructed using the generalised linear model (GLZ), which is a generalisation of the least squares regression in statistics for ordinal data. Overall qualitative image distortion is computed based on partial quantitative distortions from component algorithms operating on specified image features. Seven such algorithms are applied to successfully analyse the seven image distortions in relation to the original image. A survey of over 12,000 subjective quality scores has been carried out in order to determine the influence of these features on the perceived image quality. The results of quantitative assessments are mapped on the surveyed scores to obtain an overall quality score of the image. The proposed models have been validated in order to prove that the above technique can be applied to automatic image quality assessment.     

Definition of requirements for accessing multilingual information opinions

Multimedia Tools and Applications - In this paper, we will present a study concerning the understanding of the needs of people using Internet in order to access to multilingual information. In...     

Recent advances in multimedia networking

In recent years, the ubiquity of multimedia services along with the proliferation of mobile devices and the demand for new audio and video applications are changing the life style of users. User demands for multimedia access anywhere, anytime from any device are creating new challenges for research communities from both academia and industry. It is expected that video-based services alone will account for 50 percent of all consumer network traffic in 2012 and we will continue to witness the explosive growth in users sharing multimedia content over the Internet. In this context, new network, application, and user-based approaches must be created to deal with such complex multimedia systems. This paper presents some of the recent advances in multimedia networking focusing primarily on areas that have been receiving attention recently and are expected to continue to generate further interests in coming years. These areas include Quality of Experience (QoE) and various related standardization issues, Content Distribution Networks (CDNs), multimedia communications, mobile Multimedia. This paper also briefly highlights some of the major challenges that still need to be addressed to enable the support and delivery of multimedia services anywhere, anytime over highly heterogeneous infrastructures and user terminal devices.