MPEG Format Research Articles

Створення інвентаризаційної бази даних та 3D-моделей пам’ятників видатних польських діячів, похованих на Личаківському цвинтарі у м. Львові

Aim. The aim of the work is to create an inventory file database of prominent Polish figures buried in the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv and to create dynamic 3D-models of burialmonuments,most of which are art monuments. Method. Themethod of creating an inventory database of Polish burials at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv proposed in the work includes the following stages: development of html-layout of the database; filling the inventory table of Polish burialswith data; creation of a file database of Polish burials according to the developed structure; creation of dynamic 3D-models of monuments of outstanding personalities buried in Lychakiv Cemetery. All elements of the inventory database of Polish burials are made in html format, and dynamic 3D-models in MPEG format, connected to html via hyperlinks. Results. As a result of the research, an inventory database was created, which includes a catalog of Polish burials on the territory of Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv (burial number, surname and name of the buried, years of life). Each last name in the inventory database is linked by a hyperlink to the file database for each person. The file database includes the following items: human name, age, condition of the monument, coordinates of the grave, photos of the monument, gender, brief information about the buried (if any), burial sector. In addition, dynamic 3D-models of monuments have been created for prominent personalities buried in Lychakiv Cemetery with the help of the Polycam mobile application, which is also connected as a video file to the database. Practical value. The results can be used by the management of the Lychakiv Cemetery to enhance the tourist attractiveness of the site, as well as by Polish public and governmental organizations involved in the registration and care of Polish burials.

Stream-Based Visually Lossless Data Compression Applying Variable Bit-Length ADPCM Encoding.

Video applications have become one of the major services in the engineering field, which are implemented by server–client systems connected via the Internet, broadcasting services for mobile devices such as smartphones and surveillance cameras for security. Recently, the majority of video encoding mechanisms to reduce the data rate are mainly lossy compression methods such as the MPEG format. However, when we consider special needs for high-speed communication such as display applications and object detection ones with high accuracy from the video stream, we need to address the encoding mechanism without any loss of pixel information, called visually lossless compression. This paper focuses on the Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation (ADPCM) that encodes a data stream into a constant bit length per data element. However, the conventional ADPCM does not have any mechanism to control dynamically the encoding bit length. We propose a novel ADPCM that provides a mechanism with a variable bit-length control, called ADPCM-VBL, for the encoding/decoding mechanism. Furthermore, since we expect that the encoded data from ADPCM maintains low entropy, we expect to reduce the amount of data by applying a lossless data compression. Applying ADPCM-VBL and a lossless data compression, this paper proposes a video transfer system that controls throughput autonomously in the communication data path. Through evaluations focusing on the aspects of the encoding performance and the image quality, we confirm that the proposed mechanisms effectively work on the applications that needs visually lossless compression by encoding video stream in low latency.

Screening Echocardiography in a Developing Country

Abstract Background The use of tele-echocardiograms could be useful for improving access of patients to echocardiographic evaluation in places where there is a shortage of trained physicians. It was evaluated the agreement between a physician sonographer and another health professional with basic training to acquire transthoracic images, assessed by a remote echocardiographer. Methods 174 patients underwent echocardiography by a physician level III training in Echo. A moving image protocol (MPEG format, 3 cycles for each image) was stored: 2D parasternal long axis, apical four chambers with and without color. Soon after, a nurse with 20 hours of training in Echo, unaware of the result of the report, acquired the same protocol. The exams were randomized and sent to a remote observer, another echocardiographer level III, blinded to the sonographer's status, to recognize the presence of the any of the following abnormalities: left ventricular enlargement, hypertrophy and systolic dysfunction; right ventricular enlargement, left atrium enlargement and left sided valvopathy at least moderate. Agreement was evaluated by kappa concordance. Results It was analyzed 108 females and 66 males, median age= 61 y [P.25=50-P.75=72]; LV ejection fraction= 64 % [58-69] and body mass index= 27.6 kg/m2 [24.5-32.5]. There was a good concordance between the evaluators. All the indices analyzed showed agreement above 0.55 and statistic significance (left ventricular enlargement - 0.84; left ventricular hypertrophy - 0.84; systolic left ventricular dysfunction - 0.82; right ventricle enlargement - 0.72; left atrial enlargement - 0.80; valvopathy - 0.56). Conclusions The image acquisition by a tele-echocardiogram screening may be acquired by non-physician professionals with minimum training. Key messages Echocardiography. Remote.

Prototype of Visible Light Communication Transceiver Using Array Photo Transistor for Real Time Digital Media Transfer

Previous research about low cost visible light communication (VLC) transceiver prototype was conducted which able to reach 98 cm, 70° and 19200 bps of transmitting distance, maximum transmission angle and transmission rate, respectively. The next prototype is built to get better performance by adding a reflector to the array phototransistor and split the power of the transceiver in order to maximize the light of the LED. This new prototype surpasses our target by reaching 134 cm of transmission distance. The system is also able to send digital multimedia files such as text, images, video in MPEG format and audio files in WAV and Mp3 format. The maximum bit rate of our prototype is 9600 bps and acceptance angle is 87°.

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A New Approach of Crypto-compression on MPEG Format

Issues of security and compression of transmitted data have become an important concern in multimedia technology. In this study, we propose an efficient approach to secure video sequences in real time using the method of choosing reference images that is based on the Faber-schauder Multi-scale Transform to reduce the data flow. The encryption step is based on the principle of affine encryption to achieve transposition and to perform some manipulations such as puzzle to reduce the amount of bits to be processed on the image. Testing this approach on video sequences revealed an improvement in data flow and provides a stronger security and a good encryption time.

Lidocaine Jell Instillation During Ureteroscopic Stone Fragmentation Effectively Reduces Stone Migration

Introduction: Inadvertent migration of stone during ureteroscopy is a relatively common problem. In this video we are describing a cost-effective technique for prevention of inadvertent stone pushback during ureteroscopy. The current study and our previous work1 studied the efficacy of Lidocaine jelly instillation proximal to the ureteral stone during intracorporeal lithotripsy using a semi rigid ureteroscope for the prevention of retrograde migration and improvement in stone-free rate. The video is on MPEG format and the run time is 10 min. Materials and Methods: The technique described involved Lidocaine jelly instillation proximal to the stone before fragmentation. The jell is instilled either by using an open end ureteral catheter bypassing the stone under Ureteroscopic guidance or by bypassing the stone with the ureteroscope and instilling jell via the working channel of the ureteroscope. The ureteroscopy was performed using an 8F, 7F, or 6.4F semi rigid ureteroscope. A 5F ureteral stent was advanced beyond the stone. Lidocaine jelly (2 mL) was instilled and lithotripsy was performed with a Swiss LithoClast™. Alternatively, fragmentation can also be performed using a holmium laser. After the procedure, either a 5F ureteral catheter was left in place for 24 h or an indwelling Double-J stent is left in place for 2–4 weeks. Patients were followed at 24 h with plain X-ray of the kidneys, ureters, and bladder, and at 2 weeks with noncontrast enhanced computerized tomography of the kidneys, ureters, and bladder. Results: Instillation of jell before laser or pneumatic fragmentation of ureteral stone is associated with significant reduction in inadvertent stone migration during ureteroscopy. Use of jell is not associated with any side effects. However, during fragmentation using pneumatic lithotripsy devise and laser, there is some masking of the devise built in fragmentation sound. In addition, there is some clouding that can affect vision. This deficiency can be effectively countered by liberal use of irrigation, as with jell in place the chances of migration even with liberal irrigation are insignificant. Conclusions: Lidocaine jelly instillation proximal to ureteral calculi during lithotripsy using either pneumatic device or laser is an effective method of preventing retrograde stone displacement as well as significantly improving the stone-free rate. No competing financial interests exist. Runtime of video: 9 mins 59 secs

Integer DCT Based on Direct-Lifting of DCT-IDCT for Lossless-to-Lossy Image Coding

A discrete cosine transform (DCT) can be easily implemented in software and hardware for the JPEG and MPEG formats. However, even though some integer DCTs (IntDCTs) for lossless-to-lossy image coding have been proposed, such transform requires redesigned devices. This paper proposes a hardware-friendly IntDCT that can be applied to both lossless and lossy coding. Our IntDCT is implemented by direct-lifting of DCT and inverse DCT (IDCT). Consequently, any existing DCT device can be directly applied to every lifting block. Although our method requires a small side information block (SIB), it is validated by its application to lossless-to-lossy image coding.

Simultaneous MEG and Ultrasound Recording of Fetal Breathing Movement

Event Abstract Back to Event Simultaneous MEG and Ultrasound Recording of Fetal Breathing Movement Umit Ulusar1*, Rathinaswamy Govindan2, James Wilson1, Murphy Pamela2, Curtis Lowery2 and Hari Eswaran2 1 University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Graduate Institute of Technology, United States 2 University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, United States Bio-magnetic signals induced by fetal breathing movement (FBM) are interfering factors for the investigation of fetal magnetoencephalography (fMEG) and magnetocardiography. We developed a novel framework to identify FBM signal in the bio-magnetic recordings. Using a 151 magnetic sensor array system and a portable ultrasound device, simultaneous fMEG and sonographic recordings were performed for 11 to 30 minutes duration on six fetuses ranging between 35 and 37 weeks gestational age. The fMEG data were sampled at a rate of 312.5 Hz using a bandwidth set for 0-100 Hz. The interfering maternal cardiac signals were removed by the signal space projection technique. Ultrasound video was saved in MPEG format with 30 frames per second and 640 x 480 pixel resolution. The ultrasound images were processed using Sticks filter [1] for the elimination of the speckle noise and with horizontal Sobel filter for the edge enhancement. We obtained fetal movement signal by tracing the movement of the boundary defined by the fetal thorax spanning multiple frames. This signal was filtered using a 4th order Butterworth band-pass filter between 0.5 to 10 Hz with zero phase distortion. This resulted in a time series sampled at the video frame rate that represents the temporal behavior of the fetal thorax. Finally, to identify the MEG sensors containing the FBM, we used spectral coherence. The coherence was calculated between the MEG data and FBM signal obtained with ultrasound image processing on a window length of 1 minute with 4-second slides. The fMEG sensors that displayed statistically significant coherence were identified as the ones that contain the FBM signal.This study showed the feasibility of simultaneously recording fMEG and ultrasound. In future, the data observed with the identified sensors can be used to characterize the bio-magnetic signal of the FBM.

A Brazilian educational experiment: teleradiology on web TV

Since 2004, educational videoconferences have been held in Brazil for paediatric radiologists in training. The RUTE network has been used, a high-speed national research and education network. Twelve videoconferences were recorded by the Health Channel and transformed into TV programmes, both for conventional broadcast and for access via the Internet. Between October 2007 and December 2009 the Health Channel website registered 2378 hits. Our experience suggests that for successful recording of multipoint videoconferences, four areas are important: (1) a pre-planned script is required, for both physicians and film-makers; (2) particular care is necessary when editing the audiovisual material; (3) the audio and video equipment requires careful adjustment to preserve clinical discussions and the quality of radiology images; (4) to produce a product suitable for both TV sets and computer devices, the master tape needs to be encoded in low resolution digital video formats for Internet media (wmv and rm format for streaming, and compressed zip files for downloading) and MPEG format for DVDs.

Functional Characterization of Three G Protein-coupled Receptors for Pigment Dispersing Factors in Caenorhabditis elegans

Here, we report the identification, cloning, and functional characterization of three Caenorhabditis elegans G protein-coupled pigment dispersing factor (PDF) receptors, which we designated as Ce_PDFR-1a, -b, and -c. They represent three splice isoforms of the same gene (C13B9.4), which share a high degree of similarity with the Drosophila PDF receptor and are distantly related to the mammalian vasoactive intestinal peptide receptors (VPAC2) and calcitonin receptors. In a reverse pharmacological screen, three bioactive C. elegans neuropeptides, which were recently identified as the Drosophila PDF orthologues, were able to activate these receptors in a dose-dependent manner with nanomolar potency (isoforms a and b). Integrated green fluorescent protein reporter constructs reveal the expression of these PDF receptors in all body wall muscle cells and many head and tail neurons involved in the integration of environmental stimuli and the control of locomotion. Using a custom data analysis system, we demonstrate the involvement of this newly discovered neuropeptide signaling system in the regulation of locomotor behavior. Overexpression of PDF-2 phenocopies the locomotor defects of a PDF-1 null mutant, suggesting that they elicit opposite effects on locomotion through the identified PDF receptors. Our findings strengthen the hypothesis that the PDF signaling system, which imposes the circadian clock rhythm on behavior in Drosophila, has been functionally conserved throughout the protostomian evolutionary lineage.

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Comparison of XML serializations: cost benefits versus complexity

More and more data are structured, stored, and sent over a network using the Extensible Markup Language (XML) language. There are, however, concerns about the verbosity of XML in such a way that it may restrain further adoption of the language, especially when exchanging XML-based data over heterogeneous networks, and when it is used within constrained (mobile) devices. Therefore, alternative (binary) serialization formats of the XML data become relevant in order to reduce this overhead. However, usingbinary-encoded XML should not introduce interoperability issues with existing applications nor add additional complexity to new applications. On top of that, it should have a clear cost reduction over the current plain-text serialization format. A first technology is developed within the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group, namely the Binary MPEG Format for XML. It provides good compression efficiency, ability to (partially) update existing XML trees, and facilitates random access into, and manipulation of, the binary-encoded bit stream. Another technique is based on the Abstract Syntax Notation One specification with the Packed Encoding Rules created by the ITU-T. This paper evaluates both techniques as alternative XML serialization formats and introduces a solution for the interoperability concerns. This solution and the alternative serialization formats are validated against two real-life use cases in terms of processing speed and cost reduction. The efficiency of the alternative serialization formats are compared to a classic plain text compression technique, in particular ZIP compression.

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Mobile communications - an overview

This article focuses on voice communications using mobile (cell) phones over mobile/cellular networks. The advances in processors, memory, signal processing, communication technologies, and several related techniques, personal mobile communications has witnessed tremendous growth. A typical mobile communication network consists of: mobile devices, BS, mobile switching centers, gateway mobile switching center. Cell phones communicate wirelessly with BSs. Base stations communicate with MSCs on fiber-optic cables or microwave links. Some of the extensions are also made in the cell phone, MMS, JPEG format, MPEG format, graphics, and animation.

Domain structures in complex 3D magnetic fields

The numerous magnetic fragments that populate the mixed-polarity, quiet-Sun photosphere give rise to many interesting topological features in the corona. In light of this, much recent work has gone into classifying the configurations that arise from simple, point-source potential-field models in efforts to determine the nature of the quiet-Sun magnetic field. These studies have ranged from systematic and detailed examinations of magnetic fields arising from only a handful of sources, involving classifying the configurations that arise (and how some states may bifurcate into other states), to statistical studies of the overall properties of fields arising from hundreds of magnetic sources. Such studies have greatly increased our understanding of what we might expect the magnetic field over the quiet Sun to behave like; the purpose of the study presented here is to extend this understanding further by examining the structure of the individual domains (the regions in space through which pairs of opposite-polarity sources are connected). In particular, the features of lesser-known domain structures that are absent from fields arising from only a few sources and overlooked by sweeping statistical studies are documented. In spite of the incredible complexity of the coronal field, previous studies have shown that there are only two types of building block in a potential field arising from coplanar point sources: namely, an isolated dome, bounded by a single unbroken separatrix surface, and a separator-ring domain, engirdled by a ring of separators. However, it is demonstrated here how both isolated domains and separator-ring domains may be categorised further depending upon their particular geometrical and topological traits. As many models predict coronal heating at topologically distinct features in magnetic fields such as null points, separators and separatrices, for any such models to be applied to general fields would require a scheme for identifying which topological features are related to a given domain. The study here explores some of the issues that would need to be taken into account by such a scheme, and in particular the problems associated with trying to deduce the properties of a general magnetic field from knowledge of domain footprints alone. Animated 3D-rotational views of some of the figures in this manuscript may be viewed in AVI, MPEG and animated-GIF formats by visiting http://www-solar.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/robertc/animations/blocks.html and following the desired link.

Time-Variant Watermarking of MPEG-Compressed Digital Videos


 
 
 Watermarks allow one to embed information into digital videos in a way that is imperceptible to the viewer. This information can be used to establish ownership, trace origin of copies, and verify the integrity of the video. Watermarking may be compared to injecting additional energy; to ensure that this injection remains unnoticeable, it should be as small as possible. We outline an approach that permits a significant increase of the amount of information that can be accommodated in a watermark without any increase in the complexity of the process, namely time- variant watermarks. Since data compression is an important aspect in storing and distributing digital videos, we formulate our approach assuming the video is represented in an MPEG format. We discuss implementation issues of time-variant watermarks, with special emphasis on their advantages over the usual time- invariant watermarks. We comment on defeating attacks using filtering, cropping, resizing, and other standard methods used to defeat watermarks, such as changing existing frames, as well as new attacks, such as removing, repeating or permuting frames.
 
 

Dual Level Access Scheme for Digital Video Sequences

In this paper, a dual level access scheme is proposed to provide two levels of access to the broadcast data; one to video signals protected for authorized users, another to extra information e.g. advertisements provided for the remaining users in the network. In the scheme, video signals in MPEG format are considered. The video contents are protected from unauthorized viewing by encrypting the DC coefficients of the luminance component in I-frames, which are extracted from the MPEG bit-stream. An improved direct sequence spread spectrum technique is used to add extra information to non-zero AC coefficients, extracted from the same MPEG bit-stream. The resultant MPEG bit-stream still occupies the same existing bandwidth allocated for a broadcast channel. At the receiver, the extra information is recovered and subtracted from the altered AC coefficients. The result is then combined with the decrypted DC coefficients to restore the original MPEG bit-stream. The experimental results show that less than 2.9% of the size of MPEG bit-stream was required to be encrypted in order to efficiently reduce its commercial value. Also, on average, with a 1.125 Mbps MPEG bit-stream, an amount of extra information up to 1.4kbps could be successfully transmitted, while the video quality (PSNR) was unnoticeably degraded by 2.81 dB.