Digital Storage Media Research Articles

Musical instrument digital recording device with communications interface

A portable musical instrument direct recording and playback device (10) for recording, editing, and replaying musical sounds generated by a musical instrument. The musical sounds are converted from analog to digital format, compressed for minimum storage usage, and stored in a digital storage medium. The stored signals are filed according to an indexing scheme that allows selection and retrieval of selected portions of the musical sounds. The selected portions are retrieved from storage, decompressed, converted back to analog signals, and output to a sound generating device. The operation of the device (10) is controlled by application software (19) and operating system software (21).

It's about Time: Research Challenges in Digital Archiving and Long-term Preservation, I

One of the marvels of the information technology revolution is the continuous improvement in computer memory and storage performance and their simultaneous drop in cost. Thanks to what has been called “silicon scaling” the process power of a 1980s vintage mainframe computer now fits on miniscule silicon chips that can be embedded in any number of capture devices from complex remote sensors to consumer digital cameras. Digital storage devices and media have benefited from similar performance improvements and cost declines. Large organizations routinely add terabytes of storage capacity, and more and more individuals can afford laptop and desktop computers with tens of gigabytes of storage. One might suspect that archiving and preserving digital information would become easier and cheaper as a consequence of these improvements. But from a long-term preservation perspective, there is a dark side to the rapid growth in digital information. The technologies, strategies, methodologies, and resources needed to manage digital information for the long term have not kept pace with innovations in the creation and capture of digital information.

A hard disk drive embedded digital satellite receiver with scene change detector for video indexing

We present a hard disk drive embedded digital satellite receiver with a scene change detector for video indexing. We implement a scene change detection algorithm in the compressed domain for low computing power systems. This receiver can store, retrieve and manage the broadcast data by implementing an interface between the conventional digital satellite receiver and digital storage media. In addition, this receiver gives users an ability to search the scene change position by implementing a scene change detection algorithm. The detected temporal video segments are stored in the HDD and retrieved when users want them. The user can obtain more information for efficient video retrieval, using this proposed system.

A review of elastic constant measurements with resonant ultrasound spectroscopy

Measurements of elastic constants in new materials are crucial because the elastic constants, being directly related to atomic and electronic configurations, carry important information about the mechanical and electronic properties and phase transitions. A conventional method for measuring elastic constants, the pulse-echo technique, suffers from a number of problems, such as transducer-sample coupling, parallelism of sample faces, the necessity of remounting transducers, etc. Such problems are avoided in resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS), a relatively new method which can determine all elastic constants in a single measurement. Currently a number of research groups, e.g., UCLA, Los Alamos, Colorado State, University of Wisconsin, University of Nevada, NIST, and laboratories in Europe and Asia are using the RUS technique to study a wide variety of systems, and these will be reviewed in this talk. In our own research, the RUS technique has been extended for studies of very small samples (less than 100 μg) and for measuring the elastic constants in thin film (200 nm) samples. Studies include thin films of magnetic materials involving colossal magnetoresistance (candidates for high density digital data storage media) and films of carbon nanotubes, which have unique mechanical properties. [Research supported by ONR.]

Response to Hirsch (2001)

Response to Hirsch (2001)

Spies, thieves, and lies: the battle for multimedia in the digital era

Multimedia security has become an immediate concern for content providers, artists, and the entertainment industry. The apparent panic over the need for an effective mechanism for digital media rights protection echoes in many of today's news stories. The fundamental cause for this frenzy is the leakage problem. The leakage problem involves the illegal duplication, unlawful tampering, and wrongful distribution of media. Because of the popularity of handheld digital cameras, online news magazines, and movies on digital versatile disk (DVD), traditional forms of analog media are being replaced with new digital counterparts. Advances in digital media storage, duplication, editing, and transmission technologies have made this alternative more flexible, scalable, and cost effective for emerging applications. Ironically, however, these same appealing conveniences have facilitated large-scale piracy of and unlawful tampering with digital content. Because of analog media's media, high-quality duplication is expensive and therefore inaccessible to the average consumer. Despite new legislation by governments and the ongoing efforts of the entertainment and high-tech industries, there has been little progress in preventing multimedia theft and tampering.

Anisotropic spinodal dewetting as a route to self-assembly of patterned surfaces

The ability to pattern surfaces on a microscopic length scale is of importance for technological applications such as the fabrication of microelectronic circuits and digital storage media. Devices fabricated entirely from polymers are now available, opening up the possibility of adapting polymer processing technologies to fabricate cheap, large-area devices using non-lithographic techniques--for example, by exploiting dewetting and phase separation in thin films. But the final pattern adopted by the polymer film using such approaches requires a template printed onto the substrate by optical lithography, microcontact printing or vapour deposition. Here we describe a simple process for patterning surfaces that does not require a template. Our method involves the spinodal dewetting of a polymer surface by a thin polymer film, in which a liquid film breaks up owing to the amplification of thermal fluctuations in film thickness induced by dispersion forces. A preferred orientation is imposed on the dewetting process simply by rubbing the substrate, and this gives rise to patterns of remarkably well-aligned polymer lines. The width of these lines is well-defined, and is controlled by the magnitude of the dispersion forces at the interface, which in turn can be varied by varying the thickness of the polymer substrate. We expect that further work will make it possible to optimize the degree of order in the final morphology.

The Effect of Digital Indexing Systems on the Accessibilityof Photographic Collections

This Digital Image Archive (DIA) project involves the production of adigital archive of a collection of Nineteenth Century photographicimages and equipment. The DIA was designed to operate as a public accesscatalogue, to aid curators with information retrieval and to reduce theneed to handle some original material. Much of the William Henry FoxTalbot collection at the Royal Photographic Society can no longer beexhibited due to damage caused by handling and light. Access to thecollection is restricted because of preservation concerns over a growingpercentage of the collection and insufficient resources forreproductions and supervision. These problems led to investigations intothe possible advantages that digital technology might offer.Cross-referencing, administrative cataloguing and recording ofpreservation techniques are ideally suited to digital technology. Theshort life span of digital storage media and concerns over systemcompatibility requires the development of a complex long-term digitalstrategy that must be standardized if the archival material is tosurvive. Construction of the DIA involved investigations into softwareand hardware configurations concentrating on the ability to customizefactors such as indexing from recognized standards and practices. Thispaper concentrates on the results of a survey into standards withindigital indexing systems, which indicates that although there is growingawareness of standardization within digital cataloguing and multimedia,many organizations continue to devise independent systems.

Private data broadcasting using digital TV and MPEG-2 transport stream

We present a new system for the transmission of multimedia information within the digital TV channel. The scheme proposed is based on some digital storage media command and control (DSM-CC) functions, while the transport structure used is the MPEG-2 Transport Stream, that is the most widespread platform for new digital television systems. The multimedia information conveyed in such application is structured as in the WWW system, where the text is integrated with images, sounds and animation by the means of the HMTL language.

A Java-based MPEG-4 like video codec

The MPEG-4 specification was developed in response to the growing need for a coding method that can facilitate dynamic access to audio-visual objects for various applications such as digital storage media, Internet, various forms of wired or wireless communication etc. Although the specification is still in the working draft stage, the concepts and technologies of the specification are very encouraging and will inspire a lot of creative works in multimedia applications. This paper is devoted to the software implementation of the video part of MPEG-4. We develop a prototype of MPEG-4 like video encoder and a prototype of Java-based video decoder, which can be executed on the Internet, in the client-server model by using Java Applet. The prototype can show the strong functionality of MPEG-4 that includes user interactivity and object scalability, etc.

CIE Work in Color Imaging

The CIE Board of Administration has proposed a new Division to study procedures and prepare guides and standards for the optical, visual and metrological aspects of the communication, processing, and reproduction of images, using all types of analogue and digital imaging devices, storage media and imaging media. While current practice enables adequate color communication within single industries, such as publishing or television, it was felt that more effort was needed to make the data produced within these industries readily useable in other areas. The CIE is the most appropriate body in which to do this since illumination, vision and measurement are all topics within its scope and are all essential components in specifying and controlling the digital reproduction of color images.

A VoD Application Implemented in Java

This article describes an implementation of a Video-on-Demand (VoD) system for the VoD interoperability test laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It describes how Java can be used to implement the client side of a DAVIC based client-server system, which consists of a video server and a Set-Top Unit (STU) client. The communication between the video server and the STU is based on the Digital Storage Media Command and Control (DSM-CC) protocols. The VoD application is defined as a set of Java classes. These classes implement the graphical interfaces for user navigation and control. While this system is compliant with DAVIC specifications, it also permits an elegant integration of DAVIC services to the Internet environment.

A real-time variable bit rate MPEG2 video coding method for digital storage media

A real-time coding that performs, in one coding pass, a variable bit rate coding that capitalizes on MPEG-2 video coding is proposed. In this method, coding is performed according to the degree of difficulty in image coding. To realize this objective, the relationship between quantization scale and generated bits is modeled as a bit amount assigning function. Based on this bit amount assigning function, the quantization scale is determined for each picture frame and coding is performed with this quantization scale. To verify this method, computer simulations are performed and MPEG-2 real-time encoders are built to realize the hardware installation of this method. From the results, it is confirmed that: 1. assignment of bit amounts in this method is executed in a similar fashion to that achieved in conventional two-pass variable bit rate coding, 2. Image quality can greatly be improved over the quality achieved in the constant bit rate coding, and 3. Coding performance remains stable even over extensive coding durations. Also, this method can be implemented using the same level of hardware as is required in constant bit rate coding. As a result, we have the prospect that two hours of high quality video can be recorded onto one side of a DVD-RAM disc in real time with the proposed method.

Multimedia information broadcasting using digital TV channels

The structure of a new system used to broadcast multimedia information within a digital TV channel is outlined. The proposed scheme is based on the the Digital Storage Media Command and Control (DSM-CC) functions, and uses a newly developed protocol that allows to efficiently convey multimedia information. Such information has the same characteristics of HTML files used in WWW environments, as it may contain text, images, sounds and animation organized as an hypertext. The transport structure used is the MPEG-2 Transport Stream, which is the most standardized platform for the development of new digital TV services. A prototype software was developed to encode the file system by means of DSM-CC operations and include it in a MPEG-2 compatible Transport Stream.

Multimedia information broadcasting using digital TV channels

In this paper, the structure of a new system to broadcast multimedia information within a digital TV channel is outlined. The proposed scheme is based on the DSM-CC (digital storage media command and control) functions, and uses a newly developed protocol that allows to efficiently convey multimedia information. Such information has the same characteristics of HTML files used in WWW environments, as it may contain text, images, sounds and animation organized as hypertext. The transport structure used is the MPEG-2 transport stream, which is the most popular standardized platform for the development of new digital TV services. Prototype software was developed to encode the file system by means of DSM-CC operations and include it in a MPEG-2 compatible transport system.

Supporting constant-bit-rate-encoded MPEG-2 transport over local ATM networks

As one of the fast-developing switch-based high-speed networks, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is a promising network standard which may satisfy various requirements of multimedia computing. The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) standard was designed to support full motion video stored on digital storage media at compression ratios up to 200:1. MPEG-2 is the second development phase of the MPEG standard and is designed for higher resolutions (including but not restricted to interlaced video) and higher bit rates (up to 20 Mbits/s). In this paper, the ATM adaptation layer type 5 (AAL-5) protocol was used to encapsulate constant-bit-rate-encoded MPEG-2 transport packets because of AAL-5’s general availability. However, there is a mismatch of size between MPEG-2’ s transport packets (188 bytes) and ATM AAL-5’s protocol data units (up to 65 535 bytes). In this paper, we examine and analyze four different packing schemes, 1TP, 2TP, nTP-Tight, and nTP-Loose (the scheme we propose), which encapsulated a certain number of MPEG-2 transport packets into one AAL-5 PDU. nTP-Loose scheme is proposed to have (1) better end-to-end performance than schemes 1TP and 2TP, (2) better error-recovery capability than scheme nTP-Tight, and (3) the same buffer requirement as scheme 2TP. A Power Macintosh ATM platform was used to identify the range of possible ways of packing MPEG-2 transport packets into one ATM AAL-5 PDU, when schemes with more than two MPEG-2 transport packets are chosen. Based on the test results, 10 or 12 MPEG-2 transport packets, which can yield throughputs of 70.36 and 78.98 Mbits/s, respectively, are recommended. Fast forward and backward playing of MPEG-2 movies (several times the video display speed) can be easily achieved via ATM networks.

MPEG digital storage media (DSM) control command

This paper reports the current standardization activity of the MPEG digital storage media (DSM) control command. The necessity and the scope of the work are discussed first. The basic functions of the DSM control command that have been specified are described. The extension work of DSM control command is introduced. The position of the DSM control command with respect to various layers in a network application environment is illustrated. Finally, possible applications of DSM control command for various MPEG bitstream operations are highlighted and an application system configuration is shown.

MPEG: a technological basis for multimedia applications

The Moving Picture Experts Group was established in 1988 in the framework of the Joint ISO/IEC Technical Committee (JTC 1) on Information Technology. They were given the mandate to develop standards for coded representation of moving pictures, associated audio, and their combination when used for storage and retrieval on digital storage media (DSM). In April 1990 they became Working Group 11 of JTC 1/SC 2, then in November 1991, WG 11 of JTC 1/SC 29. The three original work items of the group-coding up to 1.5, 10, and 40 Mbps-were nicknamed MPEG-1, -2 and -3, respectively. The group dropped the MPEG3 work item in July 1992 when it became apparent that the functionalities supported by the MPEG-2 requirements made it redundant. The current MPEG-4 work item, first proposed in May 1991 and approved in July 1993, targets audiovisual coding at very low bit-rates. >

Development of VLSI of entropy coding for digital video

AbstractWith the recent development of the digital electrical communication network and the advent of low‐cost large‐capacity digital storage media, an effort is made toward the digitization of the TV signal. Along with this, the image coding technique is becoming more important, where the research emphasis is shifting from the low bitrate pseudodynamic image representation, to high‐resolution, high‐quality images. Among various image coding methods, the feature of the entropy coding based on Huffman coding [1–3] is that a large amount of image data can be compressed efficiently by combining discrete‐cosine transform (DCT) and the motion‐compensated interframe coding, and is used presently as the indispensable element of the algorithm.To apply the method to the future digital dynamic image with a high image quality requirement and to realize the real‐time processing, it is necessary to develop a fast processing architecture for the Huffman coding, together with its VLSI implementation. With this as background, this paper describes the fast processing architecture for the Huffman coding developed by the authors, together with its VLSI implementation.

Current trends in pop music recording facilities

The design of current recording facilities is being influenced by several factors. The proliferation of digital signal processing equipment, signal acquisition, and storage media have sparked changes in the way recording studio facilities are used. The mixture of programmed synthesis with acoustic studio performance and the resulting changes in recording technique also provide a significant influence on the design of pop music recording facilities. The impact these changes are having on facility layout, configuration, and function; noise and vibration control; the architectural acoustic environment of studios and control rooms; and the electroacoustic interface will be discussed.