Video Components Research Articles

VDBMS: A testbed facility for research in video database benchmarking

Real-world video-based applications require database technology that is capable of storing digital video in the form of video databases and providing content-based video search and retrieval. Methods for handling traditional data storage, query, search, retrieval, and presentation cannot be extended to provide this functionality. The VDBMS research initiative is motivated by the requirements of video-based applications to search and retrieve portions of video data based on content and by the need for testbed facilities to facilitate research in the area of video database management. In this paper we describe the VDBMS video database research platform, a system that supports comprehensive and efficient database management for digital video. Our fundamental concept is to provide a full range of functionality for video as a well-defined abstract database data type, with its own description, parameters, and applicable methods. Research problems that are addressed by VDBMS to support the handling of video data include MPEG7 standard multimedia content representation, algorithms for image-based shot detection, image processing techniques for extracting low-level visual features, a high-dimensional indexing technique to access the high-dimensional feature vectors extracted by image preprocessing, multimedia query processing and optimization, new query operators, real-time stream management, a search-based buffer management policy, and an access control model for selective, content-based access to streaming video. VDBMS also provides an environment for testing the correctness and scope of new video processing techniques, measuring the performance of algorithms in a standardized way, and comparing the performance of different implementations of an algorithm or component. We are currently developing video component wrappers with well-defined interfaces to facilitate the modification or replacement of video processing components. The ultimate goal of the VDBMS project is a flexible, extensible framework that can be used by the research community for developing, testing, and benchmarking video database technologies.

A Theory of Informative Video -- 64 Functions and Ways to Implement Them

Research Questions: Research Question 1: Un-Informative Use of Video: Why is the visual parts of video seldom used to convey information? Research Question 2: Model-Less-Ness of Video: Is there a connection between documentaries and movies lacking models of their own contents and video contents of them not being used to convey information? Research Question 3: How Can Video Means Be Used to inform:: How can we find myriad ways that visual contents can be used to inform instead of merely to decorate or set moods?Any of a number of tests of the informativeness of the video content in training tapes, internet courseware, documentary TV programs, and the like show that you can get 95% or more of the content from hearing what is said, with eyes closed. In other words, for the most part, the video content of these media is not being used to convey information save for certain entertainment functions. The video component is more decorative than informative in nearly all cases. In not a few cases, it is quite evident that editors and composers of these media searched hard to find “fill in” video imagery as transitions and decorations and all-too-obvious examples of the main ideas, all of which are presented in oral form. Video media, as found in current practice, simply do not know how to use video to present information. This article outlines an overall approach to solving this problem by specifying all the ways that video can be used to inform in a well-ordered categorical model. Tools for supporting and actualizing each of the 64 informative video functions in that model can then be devised and tested rigorously.Methods -- Method 1: Review Literature: Find from research in interfaces, communications, media, influence, reading psychology, comprehensive, memory, social psych of meaning kinds of information that visual means can convey better than audio verbiage. Eight approaches to finding ways of video to inform were found after reviewing and extensive literature in many fields touching on interface, communication, multi-media, and similar topics. Results -- 8 kinds of informing function that video does better than audio -- venue inclusion, tools inclusion, main point structure display, knowledge compilation, operations on concepts noted, self change emotion requisites displayed, strata of stratified responses noted, enactment of influence functions noted. They are: identify informing functions that video does better that words do; embed in video some of the informing functions found in diverse communication venues; embed in video some of the informing functions found in particular communication tools; use video to show the structure of main points as they are mentioned or referred to in a presentation; use video to compile knowledge from one format to another as needed by a presentation; use video to visually demonstrate operations going on on concepts during a presentation; use video to set up the emotional requisites of changing your self and your frame of reference at key points in a presentation; use video to enact components of the basic personal influence functions that one person applies to another. A research agenda for exploring all of these in the same disciplined thorough way is presented at the end of this article.

Quality of service for networked virtual environments

A definition and measurement of quality of service for networked virtual environments (NVEs) presents many challenges, in part due to subjective and qualitative description of users' preferences for NVE-based applications. QoS can be provided, in general, as a per-application service, a network layer option, or both. Many of the proposed QoS architectures for NVE-based applications include the per-application service approach. Most of them focus on video and audio components with less emphasis on user interactions and user-level QoS. A review of architectures and approaches to QoS for NVEs identifies related issues. Those issues include user-level QoS and mapping between user and application-level QoS, as well as the relationship between application-level QoS and network-level requirements. An approach is described that, for a given user-level QoS value, provides a reductions in network requirements by optimizing task or application-level scenarios. An example based on the DIVE testbed illustrates the approach.

User satisfaction with rehabilitation services delivered using Internet video.

Rehabilitation services to four remote sites in New Brunswick were delivered via PC-based videoconferencing equipment, using ADSL connections to the Internet. Approximately 40 people used the equipment over 18 months. There were 32 videoconference sessions. A total of 60 questionnaires were returned (a 94% response rate). In 31 of the 32 videoconferences, a connection was successfully established between the computers. The videoconferences lasted on average 20 min. The most frequent applications were viewing of rehabilitative equipment and video communication. The technology was found to be useful and provided an enhanced form of communication from the video component. There were some problems with the stability and reliability of the equipment.

High-Resolution Video-Enhanced Differential Interference Contrast Light Microscopy

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the basic concepts of differential interference contrast (DIC) image formation and analog and digital contrast enhancement, the practical aspects of component selection, alignment and specimen chambers for VE-DIC, and several test specimens for measuring microscope and video performance. A DIC microscope is a dual beam interferometer that uses a brightfield polarizing microscope containing polarizer, analyzer, and rotating stage. Contrast enhancement is produced by subtracting voltage from the video signal and amplifying the difference for each horizontal line scan of the video raster image. Increasing the analog contrast enhancement to the levels necessary to give distinct images of microtubules induces a new set of technical problems. Image quality becomes limited by noise from several sources, which is amplified as gain is increased. Fixed pattern noise could be eliminated from the video image by subtracting a stored background image, using a digital image processor operating at video rates. The background is obtained by defocusing the microscope until the microtubule image disappears. Achieving high-resolution, high-contrast VE-DIC images requires the highest performance of both the optical and video components of the video microscope system. Test specimens for microscope and video performance, such as diatom test slide, squamous cheek cell, and embedded skeletal muscle thin section, are also described in the chapter.

A MPEG2-transparent scrambling technique

The paper proposes a video scrambling technique that allows an unauthorized user to have an arbitrarily degraded view of a program, yet it is totally transparent to MPEG-2 encoding. Video components are block-coded using a mix of linear transformations of pixel values. The parameter data is embedded in the scrambled video. The proposed technique is applicable to any digital broadcast scheme that is based on MPEG-2 compression, including DVB-S/C/T and ATSC.

An Integrative Review of Patients' Perceptions Regarding Telehealth used in their Health Care

The rapid changes in technology and communication have had a great impact on the delivery of health care in the United States. Such changes have spurred the growth of an arena in health care known as telehealth. An important medium in telehealth care is the use of video. This paper examines the research that has been undertaken in determining patients perceptions of the use of a video component in their health care. Ten studies examined used real-time, interactive video to deliver care, while one evaluated still images. The results of the integrative review tentatively suggest that patients are amenable to the use of video in telehealth interventions. Limitations of the studies reviewed also are discussed.

The web as an information source for sales recruits: Its effectiveness in aiding anticipatory socialization of salespeople

Do firms' web pages contain information that will aid in the proper anticipatory socialization of sales recruits? While most Fortune 100 firms' web pages included general information (e.g., financials, news, product information), few listed industry information or provided an easy contact method for more information. Almost none included video or audio components, sales-specific pieces of information, or candid information about the selling job or the firm. Results of a convenience sample of potential recruits stress the importance of firms conducting primary marketing research in order to discover exactly what their recruits desire in a web page.

A Classroom Investigation: Can Video Improve Intermediate‐Level French Language Students’ Ability to Learn about a Foreign Culture?

This study examines the effects of video on cultural knowledge at the intermediate level. Fifty‐one intermediate‐level French students viewed 8 videos. A pretest/posttest design assessed long‐term gains in cultural knowledge and in the learning of cultural practices and cultural products from exposure to a curriculum with a video component. Eight postvideo tests measured the students’ ability to retain information and to make inferences. A questionnaire assessed perceptions of cultural learning. Results indicated a significant gain in cultural knowledge with posttest scores significantly higher than pretest scores. On the short‐answer and free‐recall portions of the 8 postvideo tests, the students’ ability to make inferences or retain information did not improve significantly in either an advance organizer (AO) or a non‐AO condition. For free recall, scores were significantly higher for mentions of cultural practices than for products. The students believed that they learned more cultural practices than products. The results support using video to enhance cultural knowledge.

Separation anxiety: metaphoric transmutations from a paradoxical biological instrument, or: What is a cactus doing in our concert hall?

In its original rendition, Degrees of Separation: “Grandchild of Tree” (1998) is performed with cactus, outboard digital effects, and CD playback, with simple lighting. The work is a metaphor which portrays subtle transformations (or transmutations) in human existence precipitated by pervasive new technology. A new version consists of a performance with a video component and all electronics fully automated in MAX/MSP on a Macintosh Powerbook. Development of this work, and subsequent versions, have proven invaluable for my own approach to the music I compose, and for the understanding of my position in the contemporary world of computers, technology and art. This paper attempts to describe these discoveries through outlining the levels of symbolism and metaphor in the work as realised through source abstraction (both visually and aurally), spatialisation and (re-)contextualisation. It begins with the question: What is a cactus doing in the concert hall?

Spatiotemporal segmentation for compact video representation

In this paper, a novel hierarchical object-oriented video segmentation and representation algorithm is proposed. The local variance contrast and the frame difference contrast are jointly exploited for structural spatiotemporal video segmentation because these two visual features can indicate the spatial homogeneity of the grey levels and the temporal coherence of the motion fields efficiently, where the two-dimensional (2D) spatiotemporal entropic technique is further selected for generating the 2D thresholding vectors adaptively according to the variations of the video components. After the region growing and edge simplification procedures, the accurate boundaries among the different video components are further exploited by an intra-block edge extraction procedure. Moreover, the relationships of the video components among frames are exploited by a temporal tracking procedure. This proposed object-oriented spatiotemporal video segmentation algorithm may be useful for MPEG-4 system generating the video object plane (VOP) automatically.

３次元映像情報メディア技術 照明の影響を含まない立体映像部品の取得法

A method is described for acquiring textures without highlights or shading for use in an image-based virtual studio for TV program production. In an image-based virtual studio a virtual set is made using video components, i.e. shapes and textures from real objects. If the textures of video components have highlights or shading due to lighting, the composite images are unnatural. The proposed method uses polarized light, rotary polarized filter in front of a camera, and information on light position to remove the highlights and shading from textures, thereby enabling images to be composed under any lighting condition. The effectiveness of the method was demonstrated experimentally.

Open systems avionics network to replace MIL-STD-1553

This paper is a proposal for a future method of avionics data communication. The need for this proposal results from the shortcomings in the current avionics architecture, video distribution network, and in the MIL-STD-1553 data communication system. The separately wired video and data communication systems can be combined to save weight, which is especially critical for rotorcraft. Aircraft, once fielded, have limited capacity for modification and improvement due to fixed computer throughput and processing performance, network bandwidth, and space available in the avionics equipment bays. The changes proposed by this paper are to be made in conjunction with the replacement of the redundant computer boxes with open system avionics functions on industry standard circuit cards. This open architecture approach was developed over the last ten years and is now being implemented in many aircraft applications including the F-22 and the RAH-66 programs. The V-22 rotorcraft, which although just entering production, is being modified for joint service customers where modern computer performance and expanded data network bandwidth is needed. The changes of this proposal will fill this need, reduce the weight of upcoming production models, and provide growth or spare capability so that additional video and data components can be added with minimal effect on existing components. This paper examines the current V-22 avionics video and data communication hardware and wiring and propose a new implementation of open system architecture standards with integrated digital video and data communication based on ANSI standard copper fibre channel.

Teaching Mathematics: Italian Lessons From a Cross-Cultural Perspective

The video component of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) provided national-level descriptions of 8th-grade mathematics teaching in 3 countries: Germany, Japan, and the United States. Based on these data, Stigler and Hiebert (1999) argued that teaching is a cultural activity, varying more across cultures than within. This study extends their work, on a small scale, to investigate 8th-grade mathematics teaching in yet another country, Italy. Eleven Italian lessons, from urban and rural schools in northern Italy, were videotaped, translated, transcribed, and analyzed following the same procedures used in TIMSS. They were then compared with German, Japanese, and U.S. lessons videotaped in TIMSS. Analyses revealed Italian lessons to be relatively homogeneous among themselves, yet distinct from those in the other cultures. In particular, Italian lessons were found to include a unique activity, not observed in other countries, in which students and teachers interact at the blackboard, with the rest of the class as the audience. Interviews with Italian education professionals investigated the roots of this activity and supported the cultural nature of Italian teaching. Cross-cultural studies of teaching are useful for revealing practices hidden within a culture and for finding alternative ways of teaching.

Building Cross-Platform Media Workgroup Solutions

This paper presents several essential development considerations pertinent to the creation of a new nonlinear editing (NLE) system operating on the Windows NT platform. A significant factor is that the new system is based on a product initially developed for the Macintosh. The initial product operated with Apple's QuickTime file-compatible standard, which offered several advantages resulting from the program's file architecture. The resulting NLE developed by Media 100 Inc. is called iFinish. The product is a cross-platform compatible system that permits easy access to the hardware by other applications as well as the use of a substantial number of QuickTime-compatible software applications. Also, the initial signal architecture readily lends itself to the inclusion of more recent interface standards including DV (IEEE 1394) and serial digital interface (SDI, SMPTE 259M). This is a consequence of the inherent flexibility stemming from the design choices initially made. Based on the ITU-R BT.601 YC r C b , structure, the system design also interfaces to component analog video (CAV) component analog, S-Video, and National Television Standard Committee (NTSC) or phase alternation line (PAL) sources.

Automatic moving object extraction toward compact video representation

An automatic object-oriented video segmentation and representation algorithm is proposed, where the local variance contrast and the frame difference contrast are jointly exploited for meaningful moving object extraction because these two visual features can indicate the spatial homogeneity of the gray levels and the temporal coherence of the motion fields efficiently. The 2-D entropic thresholding technique and the watershed transformation method are further developed to determine the global feature thresholds adaptively according to the variation of the video components. The obtained video components are first represented by a group of 4x4 blocks coarsely, and then the meaningful moving objects are generated by an iterative region-merging procedure according to the spatiotemporal similarity measure. The temporal tracking procedure is further proposed to obtain more semantic moving objects and to establish the correspondence of the moving objects among frames. Therefore, the proposed automatic moving object extraction algorithm can detect the appearance of new objects as well as the disappearance of existing objects efficiently because the correspondence of the video objects among frames is also established. Moreover, an object-oriented video representation and indexing approach is suggested, where both the operation of the camera (i.e., change of the viewpoint) and the birth or death of the individual objects are exploited to detect the breakpoints of the video data and to select the key frames adaptively.

Closing a window on the world: Convergence and UK television services for schools

‘Closing a Window on the World: convergence and UK television services for schools’ is about the proven value to UK schools of the two free television services provided by Channel 4 and the BBC, and a serious threat to their future. The first part of the chapter discusses the first ‘revolution in learning’, based on the development of television as a ‘window on the world’ for UK schools since the 1960s. Research evidence for the very positive teacher attitudes to their use of the services in the 1990s is cited. The second part begins by discussing a BBC consultation exercise undertaken in the autumn of 2000, seeking support for a policy decision to develop a new ‘digital curriculum’ for schools. Recent research into the effectiveness of such technologies is reviewed. While schoolchildren enjoy using ICT (and especially video components it may include), there is as yet no firm evidence to support the confident claims being made for its effectiveness in promoting learning. The chapter concludes that the BBC decision to begin the rundown of its ‘traditional analogue’ television service for schools is premature. At a sensitive time for public service broadcasting, it threatens the future of free services teachers have used and respected for many years. Without government action to include relevant provision in forthcoming broadcasting legislation, UK schools seem likely to lose this distinctive and valued support for their work and their ICT resources are also likely to be impoverished.

Mathematical features of lessons in the TIMSS video study

The video component of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study marked the first time that national samples of teachers were videotaped at work in their classrooms. In this article we review some of the results of the study, with special attention to the nature of the mathematics evident in these eighth-grade lessons from Germany, Japan, and the United States. We conclude by proposing that many lessons within a country follow a cultural pattern of teaching, and that differences among countries on individual indicators of teaching must be understood in reference to these patterns.

Consistent responses of human mothers to prelinguistic infants: the effect of prelinguistic repertoire size.

The salience of infants' vocal and visual cues was examined to evaluate the efficacy of prelinguistic vocalizations to guide adult behavior. A videotape, constructed of brief behavioral episodes from 3 infants with different-sized vocal repertoires, was played to 40 mothers of prelinguistic infants. Playback mothers' responses to the episodes were consistent, demonstrating that preverbal behavior elicits comparable reactions across unfamiliar receivers. The audio and video components of the infants' episodes were then recombined. As the vocal repertoire of the stimulus infants increased, changes in the audio component more often led playback mothers to change responses. Thus, playback mothers used vocalizations as cues as the infants' vocal repertoires became larger.

Independent component analysis of natural image sequences yields spatio-temporal filters similar to simple cells in primary visual cortex.

Simple cells in the primary visual cortex process incoming visual information with receptive fields localized in space and time, bandpass in spatial and temporal frequency, tuned in orientation, and commonly selective for the direction of movement. It is shown that performing independent component analysis (ICA) on video sequences of natural scenes produces results with qualitatively similar spatio-temporal properties. Whereas the independent components of video resemble moving edges or bars, the independent component filters, i.e. the analogues of receptive fields, resemble moving sinusoids windowed by steady Gaussian envelopes. Contrary to earlier ICA results on static images, which gave only filters at the finest possible spatial scale, the spatio-temporal analysis yields filters at a range of spatial and temporal scales. Filters centred at low spatial frequencies are generally tuned to faster movement than those at high spatial frequencies.