An objective approach to measuring video playback quality in lossy networks using TCP

In this work, we investigate a new objective measurement for assessing the video playback quality for services delivered in networks that use TCP as a transport layer protocol. We define the new metric as pause intensity to characterize the quality of playback in terms of its continuity since, in the case of TCP, data packets are protected from losses but not from delays. Using packet traces generated from real TCP connections in a lossy environment, we are able to simulate the playback of a video and monitor buffer behaviors in order to calculate pause intensity values. We also run subjective tests to verify the effectiveness of the metric introduced and show that the results of pause intensity and the subjective scores made over the same real video clips are closely correlated.

Biologically inspired features for scene classification in video surveillance

Inspired by human visual cognition mechanism, this paper first presents a scene classification method based on an improved standard model feature. Compared with state-of-the-art efforts in scene classification, the newly proposed method is more robust, more selective, and of lower complexity. These advantages are demonstrated by two sets of experiments on both our own database and standard public ones. Furthermore, occlusion and disorder problems in scene classification in video surveillance are also first studied in this paper. © 2010 IEEE.

Neurophysiological investigations for the diagnosis of non-epileptic attack disorder in neuropsychiatry services:from safety standards to improved effectiveness

OBJECTIVE: The discipline of clinical neuropsychiatry currently provides specialised services for a number of conditions that cross the traditional boundaries of neurology and psychiatry, including non-epileptic attack disorder. Neurophysiological investigations have an important role within neuropsychiatry services, with video-electroencephalography (EEG) telemetry being the gold standard investigation for the differential diagnosis between epileptic seizures and non-epileptic attacks. This article reviews existing evidence on best practices for neurophysiology investigations, with focus on safety measures for video-EEG telemetry. METHODS: We conducted a systematic literature review using the PubMed database in order to identify the scientific literature on the best practices when using neurophysiological investigations in patients with suspected epileptic seizures or non-epileptic attacks. RESULTS: Specific measures need to be implemented for video-EEG telemetry to be safely and effectively carried out by neuropsychiatry services. A confirmed diagnosis of non-epileptic attack disorder following video-EEG telemetry carried out within neuropsychiatry units has the inherent advantage of allowing diagnosis communication and implementation of treatment strategies in a timely fashion, potentially improving clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness significantly. CONCLUSION: The identified recommendations set the stage for the development of standardised guidelines to enable neuropsychiatry services to implement streamlined and evidence-based care pathways.

Optimising QoE distribution for video applications through LTE-WiFi interworking

Mobile WiFi devices are becoming increasingly popular in non-seamless and user-controlled mobile traffic offloading alongside the standard WiFi hotspots. Unlike the operator-controlled hotspots, a mobile WiFi device relies on the capacity of the macro-cell for the data rate allocated to it. This type of devices can help offloading data traffic from the macro-cell base station and serve the end users within a closer range, but will change the pattern of resource distributions operated by the base station. We propose a resource allocation scheme that aims to optimize user quality of experience (QoE) when accessing video services in the environment where traffic offloading is taking place through interworking between a mobile communication system and low range wireless LANs. In this scheme, a rate redistribution algorithm is derived to perform scheduling which is controlled by a no-reference quality assessment metric in order to achieve the desired trade-offs between efficiency and fairness. We show the performance of this algorithm in terms of the distribution of the allocated data rates throughout the macro-cell investigated and the service coverage offered by the WiFi access point.

Exploring the effect of buffer behaviour on perceived video quality

In this work we deal with video streams over TCP networks and propose an alternative measurement to the widely used and accepted peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) due to the limitations of this metric in the presence of temporal errors. A test-bed was created to simulate buffer under-run in scalable video streams and the pauses produced as a result of the buffer under-run were inserted into the video before being employed as the subject of subjective testing. The pause intensity metric proposed in [1] was compared with the subjective results and it was shown that in spite of reductions in frame rate and resolution, a correlation with pause intensity still exists. Due to these conclusions, the metric may be employed in layer selection in scalable video streams. © 2011 IEEE.

HYBRID TCP/UDP video transport for H.264/AVC content delivery in burst loss networks

In this paper we propose a hybrid TCP/UDP transport, specifically for H.264/AVC encoded video, as a compromise between the delay-prone TCP and the loss-prone UDP. When implementing the hybrid approach, we argue that the playback at the receiver often need not be 100% perfect, provided that a certain level of quality is assured. Reliable TCP is used to transmit and guarantee delivery of the most important packets. This allows use of additional features in the H.264/AVC standard which simultaneously provide an enhanced playback quality, in addition to a reduction in throughput. These benefits are demonstrated through experimental results using a test-bed to emulate the hybrid proposal. We compare the proposed system with other protection methods, such as FEC, and in one case show that for the same bandwidth overhead, FEC is unable to match the performance of the hybrid system in terms of playback quality. Furthermore, we measure the delay associated with our approach, and examine its potential for use as an alternative to the conventional methods of transporting video by either TCP or UDP alone. © 2011 IEEE.

Re-written by machine and new technology: Did the Internet kill the Video Star

The traditional way of understanding television content consumption and viewer reactions may be simply summarised: information about the program, viewing at airing time, and interpersonal discussion after the program. In our digital media environment due to crossmedia consumption and platform shifts, the actual trend in audiovisual, and traditionally television content consumption is changing, the viewer’s journey is different across contents and platforms. Content is becoming independent from the platform and the medium is increasingly in the hands of technologically empowered viewers. Our objective is to uncover how traditional content expressly manufactured for television (series, reality shows, sports) can now be consumed via other platforms, and how and to what extent audiovisual content consumption is complemented or replaced by other forms (text, audio). In our exploratory research we identify the typical patterns of interaction and synergies of consumption across classical media content. In this study we used a multimethodology qualitative research design with three research phases including focus groups, online content analysis, and viewers’ narratives. Overall, the Video Star stays alive, but has to deal with immediate reactions and has to change according to his or her audiences’ wishes

Factors affecting emergency department length of stay of patients admitted to telemetry and critical care units

The purpose of this study was to determine the emergency department (ED) length of stay (LOS) of patients admitted to inpatient telemetry and critical care units and to identify the factors that contribute to a prolonged ED LOS. It also examined whether there was a difference in ED LOS between clients evaluated by an ED physician, an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP) or a Physician's Assistant (PA).^ A data collection tool was devised and used to record data obtained by retrospectively reviewing 110 charts of patients from this sample. The mean ED LOS was 286.75 minutes. Multiple factors were recorded as affecting the ED LOS of this sample, including: age, diagnosis, consultations, multiple radiographs, pending admission orders, nurse unable to call report/busy, relatives at bedside, observation or stabilization necessary, bed not ready and infusion in progress. No significant difference in ED LOS was noted between subjects initially evaluated by a physician, an ARNP or a PA. ^

High performance shift invariant motion estimation and compensation in wavelet domain video compression

The contributions of this dissertation are in the development of two new interrelated approaches to video data compression: (1) A level-refined motion estimation and subband compensation method for the effective motion estimation and motion compensation. (2) A shift-invariant sub-decimation decomposition method in order to overcome the deficiency of the decimation process in estimating motion due to its shift-invariant property of wavelet transform. ^ The enormous data generated by digital videos call for an intense need of efficient video compression techniques to conserve storage space and minimize bandwidth utilization. The main idea of video compression is to reduce the interpixel redundancies inside and between the video frames by applying motion estimation and motion compensation (MEMO) in combination with spatial transform coding. To locate the global minimum of the matching criterion function reasonably, hierarchical motion estimation by coarse to fine resolution refinements using discrete wavelet transform is applied due to its intrinsic multiresolution and scalability natures. ^ Due to the fact that most of the energies are concentrated in the low resolution subbands while decreased in the high resolution subbands, a new approach called level-refined motion estimation and subband compensation (LRSC) method is proposed. It realizes the possible intrablocks in the subbands for lower entropy coding while keeping the low computational loads of motion estimation as the level-refined method, thus to achieve both temporal compression quality and computational simplicity. ^ Since circular convolution is applied in wavelet transform to obtain the decomposed subframes without coefficient expansion, symmetric-extended wavelet transform is designed on the finite length frame signals for more accurate motion estimation without discontinuous boundary distortions. ^ Although wavelet transformed coefficients still contain spatial domain information, motion estimation in wavelet domain is not as straightforward as in spatial domain due to the shift variance property of the decimation process of the wavelet transform. A new approach called sub-decimation decomposition method is proposed, which maintains the motion consistency between the original frame and the decomposed subframes, improving as a consequence the wavelet domain video compressions by shift invariant motion estimation and compensation. ^

Acoustic telemetry studies of bonefish (Albula vulpes ) movement around Andros Island, Bahamas: Implications for species management

Bonefish (Albula spp.) support an economically important catch-and-release recreational fishery, as well as artisanal harvesting, in The Bahamas. Little is known about the large-scale movement patterns of bonefish, yet such information is essential for proper species conservation and management. ^ I used acoustic telemetry to determine large-scale movement patterns of bonefish around Andros, Bahamas, in conjunction with presumed spawning migrations. I conclude that bonefish travel long distances from shallow flats to pre-spawning aggregation sites in proximity to off-shore reef locations. Off-shore movement to deeper reef locations occurs around both new and full moons. This study has also confirmed anecdotal reports that the North Bight is an important spawning migration corridor for bonefish. ^ This information is critical for the protection of bonefish and identifies important habitats (e.g. migration corridors and pre-spawning aggregations) on Andros that warrant protection from coastal degradation or fishing pressures. ^

Digital surveillance based on video CODEC System-on-a-Chip (SoC) platforms

Today, most conventional surveillance networks are based on analog system, which has a lot of constraints like manpower and high-bandwidth requirements. It becomes the barrier for today's surveillance network development. This dissertation describes a digital surveillance network architecture based on the H.264 coding/decoding (CODEC) System-on-a-Chip (SoC) platform. The proposed digital surveillance network architecture includes three major layers: software layer, hardware layer, and the network layer. The following outlines the contributions to the proposed digital surveillance network architecture. (1) We implement an object recognition system and an object categorization system on the software layer by applying several Digital Image Processing (DIP) algorithms. (2) For better compression ratio and higher video quality transfer, we implement two new modules on the hardware layer of the H.264 CODEC core, i.e., the background elimination module and the Directional Discrete Cosine Transform (DDCT) module. (3) Furthermore, we introduce a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) sub-system on the main bus of H.264 SoC platforms as the major hardware support system for our software architecture. Thus we combine the software and hardware platforms to be an intelligent surveillance node. Lab results show that the proposed surveillance node can dramatically save the network resources like bandwidth and storage capacity.

Interactive Video Instruction: A Training Tool Whose Time Has Come

Training employees in the hospitality industry to meet guests' expectations is a critical element to success. Unfortunately, this element is often ignored. This article explores an exciting training method (interactive video) and its advantages over other training approaches.

Multi-Tissue Stable Isotope Analysis and Acoustic Telemetry Reveal Seasonal Variability in the Trophic Interactions of Juvenile Bull Sharks in a Coastal Estuary

Understanding how natural and anthropogenic drivers affect extant food webs is critical to predicting the impacts of climate change and habitat alterations on ecosystem dynamics. In the Florida Everglades, seasonal reductions in freshwater flow and precipitation lead to annual migrations of aquatic taxa from marsh habitats to deep-water refugia in estuaries. The timing and intensity of freshwater reductions, however, will be modified by ongoing ecosystem restoration and predicted climate change. Understanding the importance of seasonally pulsed resources to predators is critical to predicting the impacts of management and climate change on their populations. As with many large predators, however, it is difficult to determine to what extent predators like bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) in the coastal Everglades make use of prey pulses currently. We used passive acoustic telemetry to determine whether shark movements responded to the pulse of marsh prey. To investigate the possibility that sharks fed on marsh prey, we modelled the predicted dynamics of stable isotope values in bull shark blood and plasma under different assumptions of temporal variability in shark diets and physiological dynamics of tissue turnover and isotopic discrimination. Bull sharks increased their use of upstream channels during the late dry season, and although our previous work shows long-term specialization in the diets of sharks, stable isotope values suggested that some individuals adjusted their diets to take advantage of prey entering the system from the marsh, and as such this may be an important resource for the nursery. Restoration efforts are predicted to increase hydroperiods and marsh water levels, likely shifting the timing, duration and intensity of prey pulses, which could have negative consequences for the bull shark population and/or induce shifts in behaviour. Understanding the factors influencing the propensity to specialize or adopt more flexible trophic interactions will be an important step in fully understanding the ecological role of predators and how ecological roles may vary with environmental and anthropogenic changes.

The Use of Video Self-Modeling as an Intervention to Teach Rules and Procedures to Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The Use of Video Self-Modeling as an Intervention to Teach Rules and Procedures to Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

400 Parts Per Million: An Eco-Political Music Video

400 ppm is an eco-political music video which encapsulates climate crisis and climate justice in three minutes flat. It is an intervention in popular political ecology/economy, aimed at those who are uneasy with the increasingly obvious deterioration of the living systems of which we are an inextricable part.