Semi-automated creation of converged iTV services: From macromedia director simulations to services ready for broadcast

While sound and video may capture viewers’ attention, interaction can captivate them. This has not been available prior to the advent of Digital Television. In fact, what lies at the heart of the Digital Television revolution is this new type of interactive content, offered in the form of interactive Television (iTV) services. On top of that, the new world of converged networks has created a demand for a new type of converged services on a range of mobile terminals (Tablet PCs, PDAs and mobile phones). This paper aims at presenting a new approach to service creation that allows for the semi-automatic translation of simulations and rapid prototypes created in the accessible desktop multimedia authoring package Macromedia Director into services ready for broadcast. This is achieved by a series of tools that de-skill and speed-up the process of creating digital TV user interfaces (UI) and applications for mobile terminals. The benefits of rapid prototyping are essential for the production of these new types of services, and are therefore discussed in the first section of this paper. In the following sections, an overview of the operation of content, service, creation and management sub-systems is presented, which illustrates why these tools compose an important and integral part of a system responsible of creating, delivering and managing converged broadcast and telecommunications services. The next section examines a number of metadata languages candidates for describing the iTV services user interface and the schema language adopted in this project. A detailed description of the operation of the two tools is provided to offer an insight of how they can be used to de-skill and speed-up the process of creating digital TV user interfaces and applications for mobile terminals. Finally, representative broadcast oriented and telecommunication oriented converged service components are also introduced, demonstrating how these tools have been used to generate different types of services

An MPEG-7 scheme for semantic content modelling and filtering of digital video

Abstract Part 5 of the MPEG-7 standard specifies Multimedia Description Schemes (MDS); that is, the format multimedia content models should conform to in order to ensure interoperability across multiple platforms and applications. However, the standard does not specify how the content or the associated model may be filtered. This paper proposes an MPEG-7 scheme which can be deployed for digital video content modelling and filtering. The proposed scheme, COSMOS-7, produces rich and multi-faceted semantic content models and supports a content-based filtering approach that only analyses content relating directly to the preferred content requirements of the user. We present details of the scheme, front-end systems used for content modelling and filtering and experiences with a number of users

COSMOS-7: Video-oriented MPEG-7 scheme for modelling and filtering of semantic content

MPEG-7 prescribes a format for semantic content models for multimedia to ensure interoperability across a multitude of platforms and application domains. However, the standard leaves it open as to how the models should be used and how their content should be filtered. Filtering is a technique used to retrieve only content relevant to user requirements, thereby reducing the necessary content-sifting effort of the user. This paper proposes an MPEG-7 scheme that can be deployed for semantic content modelling and filtering of digital video. The proposed scheme, COSMOS-7, produces rich and multi-faceted semantic content models and supports a content-based filtering approach that only analyses content relating directly to the preferred content requirements of the user

HANDLING MULTILINGUAL CONTENT IN DIGITAL MEDIA: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This document expresses and analyzes the need to define a generic method for representing multilingual information in multimedia data. It describes the basic requirements that would bear upon such representations and establishes the potential link with ISO committee TC 37/SC 4 (Language Resource Management) and with XMT (eXtended MPEG-4 Textual format)

MHEG: An Interchange Format for Interactive Multimedia Presentations

This paper surveys the upcoming MHEG standard, as under development by the Multimedia Hypermedia Experts Group of ISO. It's scope is to define a system-independent encoding of the structure information which can be used for storing, exchanging, and executing of multimedia presentations in final form. We use a running example to describe the building blocks of an MHEG encoded presentation. To contribute our experience using MHEG in a networked multimedia kiosk environment, we present a complete MHEG run-time environment

Automatic Multimedia Creation Enriched with Dynamic Conceptual Data

There is a growing gap between the multimedia production and the context centric multimedia services. The main problem is the under-exploitation of the content creation design. The idea is to support dynamic content generation adapted to the user or display profile. Our work is an implementation of a web platform for automatic generation of multimedia presentations based on SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) standard. The system is able to produce rich media with dynamic multimedia content retrieved automatically from different content databases matching the semantic context. For this purpose, we extend the standard interpretation of SMIL tags in order to accomplish a semantic translation of multimedia objects in database queries. This permits services to take benefit of production process to create customized content enhanced with real time information fed from databases. The described system has been successfully deployed to create advanced context centric weather forecasts

Integration of multi-sensorial effects in synchronised immersive hybrid TV scenarios

[EN] Traditionally, TV media content has exclusively involved 2D or 3D audiovisual streams consumed by using a simple TV device. However, in order to generate more immersive media consumption experiences, other new types of content (e.g., omnidirectional video), consumption devices (e.g., Head Mounted Displays or HMD) and solutions to stimulate other senses beyond the traditional ones of sight and hearing, can be used. Multi-sensorial media content (a.k.a. mulsemedia) facilitates additional sensory effects that stimulate other senses during the media consumption, with the aim of providing the consumers with a more immersive and realistic experience. They provide the users with a greater degree of realism and immersion, but can also provide greater social integration (e.g., people with AV deficiencies or attention span problems) and even contribute to creating better educational programs (e.g., for learning through the senses in educational content or scientific divulgation). Examples of sensory effects that can be used are olfactory effects (scents), tactile effects (e.g., vibration, wind or pressure effects), and ambient effects (e.g., temperature or lighting). In this paper, a solution for providing multi-sensorial and immersive hybrid (broadcast/broadband) TV content consumption experiences, including omnidirectional video and sensory effects, is presented. It has been designed, implemented, and subjectively evaluated (by 32 participants) in an end-to-end platform for hybrid content generation, delivery and synchronised consumption. The satisfactory results which were obtained regarding the perception of fine synchronisation between sensory effects and multimedia content, and regarding the users' perceived QoE, are summarised and discussed.This work was supported in part by the "Vicerrectorado de Investigacion de la Universitat Politecnica de Valencia'' under Project PAID-11-21 and Project PAID-12-21.Marfil, D.; Boronat, F.; González-Salinas, J.; Sapena Piera, A. (2022). Integration of multi-sensorial effects in synchronised immersive hybrid TV scenarios. IEEE Access. 10:79071-79089. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.319417079071790891