Start Date February 2011
Period 9 months
Location TNO, Delft
Title Design and evaluation of a mobile video service for immersive media experiences
Topic Immersive Media / Mobile Video
Education Computer Engineering / Electrical Engineering / Media and Knowledge Engineering
Specialisation Multimedia Signal Processing / Mobile Systems / Distributed Processing
Level University
Department Multimedia Technology
Contact TNO Dr. Ir. O.A. Niamut, Omar.Niamut@tno.nl, 088 86 67218
Contact UT/DACS Dr. ir. G. Karagiannis, karagian@cs.utwente.nl
Type of assignment Internship & M. Sc. assignment
General
TNO is a leading, independent knowledge company whose expertise and research make an important contribution to the competitiveness of companies and organisations, to the economy and to the quality of society as a whole. TNO’s unique position comes through its versatility and capacity to integrate knowledge. Some 4300 professionals work at TNO.
Work Area
ICT is increasingly seen as a generic enabler in areas previously dominated by dedicated technologies. This holds in particular for multimedia. The TNO Multimedia Technology department covers the creation, distribution and presentation of multimedia, such as audio, images, video and text. We use media delivery to enable users to experience new forms of media in a context-aware manner.
Mobile internet has seen an exponential growth in bandwidth usage. This is partly fueled by the increased penetration of smartphones and tablets, equipped with audiovisual recording and consumption capabilities. This powerful combination of creation, access and consumption creates a new playing field for immersive media services, where video is a main driver for innovation. Mobile video services are further leveraged by several underlying enabling technologies, such as adaptive streaming, augmented reality and open application stores.
A similar growth can be expected for Beyond HD technologies, such as 3D, Ultra HD and panoramic video. TNO is currently studying these technologies and their application for mobile video services in the EU project FascinatE (http://www.fascinate-project.eu/). FascinatE stands for Format-Agnostic SCript-based INterAcTive Experience and is looking at broadcasting live events to give the viewer a more interactive experience no matter what device they are using the view the broadcast. Specifically, TNO is developing several immersive media service concepts, where an implementation on mobile devices such as the iPad or Android-based phones/tablets is envisioned.
Tasks
In this graduate assignment, you will develop a prototype immersive media service, including the underlying media delivery platform and mobile application. During this graduation assignment you will first analyze and investigate the state of the art of applications and technologies that can be used for a prototype immersive media service. Examples are:
- All-IP video streaming using RTP, RTSP, RTMP en HTTP adaptive streaming;
- Video coding using H.264 (SVC/MVC) and WebM;
- Video and image processing with OpenCV;
- Open-Source software such as VLC, Gstreamer, FFmpeg, OpenCV and Kaltura;
- Smartphone and tablet Operating Systems such as iOS and Android;
- Web and browser technologies such as Flash, HTML5 and PHP
Subsequently you will design, implement and evaluate a prototype media service based on a selection of the discussed technologies and applications.
You will discuss your ideas and work with the TNO FascinatE development team. Your efforts should lead to a publication and a concrete prototype implementation, e.g. an App. You potentially can present your prototype during one of the FascinatE dissemination events, such as IBC 2011.
Competence
We’re looking for an enthusiastic and driven graduate student, with a background in Computer Engineering / Electrical Engineering / Media and Knowledge Engineering. You should have a feeling for and a clear interest in media delivery and associated technologies. Your experience with the aforementioned technologies is desired and appropriate software development skills are necessary.
References
[1].FascinatE website, http://www.fascinate-project.eu/
[2].KDDI Augmented Mobile Video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urjQjR5VK_Q
[3].Stanford ROI-based Video Coding, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko9jcIjBXnk
[4].OpenCV, http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/
Balance
You want to work on the precursor of your career; a work placement gives you an opportunity to take a good look at your prospective future employer. TNO goes a step further. It’s not just looking that interests us; you and your knowledge are essential to our innovation. That’s why we attach a great deal of value to your personal and professional development.
You will, of course, be properly supervised during your work placement and be given the scope for you to get the best out of yourself. Naturally, we provide suitable work placement compensation.
As part of the selection procedure we ask candidates for a Certificate of good conduct ('Verklaring Omtrent Gedrag' or VOG) when they start their assignment. It will take you 2-3 weeks to apply for such a certificate. For further information, see http://www.netherlands-embassy.org.uk/home/index.php?i=47