Collaborative Approach Using Psychophysiology and Psychophysics for Optimal Threshold Determination in HAS Service QoE Management

Phan Xuan Tan,Eiji Kamioka

doi:10.4236/jcc.2018.68005

Abstract

In HTTP adaptive streaming (HAS) services, Quality of Experience (QoE) management has increasingly played an important role in guaranteeing the expected video quality perceived by the users with the minimal network resource. To achieve this, QoE must be automatically monitored and accurately controlled when it falls to a specific threshold. However, how to determine the QoE threshold with a scientific basis has not been carefully studied yet. In this paper, a new method to determine a QoE threshold based on biological information is proposed for a QoE management in HAS services. More concretely, the QoE threshold is determined by modeling the impact of the stimulus on the biological information obtained from the users who are watching videos. As the biological information, Skin Conductance and Heart Rate associated with Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) have been investigated. The evaluation results demonstrate that the QoE management by using the determined threshold can save more than 4.855% of the bandwidth consumption per control ensuring as high video quality as by using the fair threshold.

Highlights

Since HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) technique was introduced in 2008, it has quickly become the primarily inspired approach for major online video providers [1]—including Akamai, Netflix, Apple, Adobe, etc
The research in this paper is to propose a new method to determine an optimal Quality of Experience (QoE) threshold to ensure the perceived video quality stays at high and stable level with the minimal network resource utilization by taking into account the combination of psychophysiology and psychophysics in QoE assessment
It can be seen that the amplitude varies from subject to subject according to the stimulus intensity increment

Summary

Introduction

Since HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) technique was introduced in 2008, it has quickly become the primarily inspired approach for major online video providers [1]—including Akamai, Netflix, Apple, Adobe, etc. This is because HAS technique is based on a user-centric concept which is useful for designing the whole process of content production, service activation, content consumption and service management. Measuring electrodermal activity (EDA) is a promising way to determine the amount of an individual’s response to stimuli [30] [31]. It can be a useful index of changes in sympathetic arousal that is tractable to emotional and cognitive states.

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion