Bringing Video Communication to the Community: Opportunities and Challenges

The rise of online social networks, the wide availability of video communication technology and the deployment of high-speed broadband networks together provide the opportunity for video to become a medium for mass social communication among communities. However, current solutions provide poor support for ad hoc social interactions among multiple groups of participants. This position paper summarises the results of more than 5 years’ research to make communication and engagement easier between groups of people separated in space. It shows how communication can be effectively combined with different shared activities, and how the technical capabilities of Communication Orchestration and Dynamic Composition work together to improve the quality of human interactions. The paper also describes ongoing work to develop the Service-Aware Network as a means of optimising the quality of a user’s communication experience while making most efficient use of network resources. We believe these developments could enable video-mediated communication to become an effective and accepted enabler for social communication within community groups globall

Process Mining IPTV Customer Eye Gaze Movement Using Discrete-time Markov Chains

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research has extensively employed eye-tracking technologies in a variety of fields. Meanwhile, the ongoing development of Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) has significantly enriched the TV customer experience, which is of great interest to researchers across academia and industry. A previous study was carried out at the BT Ireland Innovation Centre (BTIIC), where an eye tracker was employed to record user interactions with a Video-on-Demand (VoD) application, the BT Player. This paper is a complementary and subsequent study of the analysis of eye-tracking data in our previously published introductory paper. Here, we propose a method for integrating layout information from the BT Player with mining the process of customer eye movement on the screen, thereby generating HCI and Industry-relevant insights regarding user experience. We incorporate a popular Machine Learning model, a discrete-time Markov Chain (DTMC), into our methodology, as the eye tracker records each gaze movement at a particular frequency, which is a good example of discrete-time sequences. The Markov Model is found suitable for our study, and it helps to reveal characteristics of the gaze movement as well as the user interface (UI) design on the VoD application by interpreting transition matrices, first passage time, proposed ‘most likely trajectory’ and other Markov properties of the model. Additionally, the study has revealed numerous promising areas for future research. And the code involved in this study is open access on GitHub

Distributed Theatre: Connecting (with) Remote Audiences

In September 2014, Miracle Theatre performed “the Tempest” simultaneously at two different locations to two separate audiences. Both audiences were linked together using an advanced video system, where several cameras captured the play. This is just one example of the radical shift in performing arts, where small theatre companies can use the Internet and a range of digital tools for reaching a wider remote audience. During the last years, we have explored how tele-presence has an effect on the performing arts, on the artists, and on the audiences. This p

Enabling Composition-Based Video-Conferencing for the Home

This paper describes a videoconferencing system that meets performance constraints and functional requirements for use in consumer homes. Our system improves existing home technologies (such as video chat) by providing high-quality audiovisual communication, efficient encoding mechanisms, and low end-to-end delay. Moreover, the system includes a control interface that is capable of dynamically manipulating and compositing audiovisual content streams. This innovative architectural component is required for a domestic setting, where the television acts as the main screen and multiple people gather around it. Apart from the requirements and architecture, this paper analyses the performance of our system. The results validate our architectural decisions and provide a valuable input for further research in domestic videoconferencing

The Optimiser: monitoring and improving switching delays in video conferencing

With the growing popularity of video communication systems, more people are using group video chat, rather than only one-to-one video calls. In such multi-party sessions, remote participants compete for the available screen space and bandwidth. A common solution is showing the current speaker prominently. Bandwidth limitations may not allow all streams to be sent at a high resolution at all times, especially with many participants in a call. This can be mitigated by only switching on higher resolutions when they are required. This switching encounters delays due to latency and the properties of encoded video streams. In this paper, we analyse and improve the switching delay of our video conferencing system. Our server-centric system offers a next-generation video chat solution, providing end-to-end video encoding. To evaluate our system we use a testbed that allows us to emulate different network conditions. We measure the video switching delay between three clients, each connected via different network profiles. Our results show that missing Intra-Frames in the transmission has a strong influence on the switching delay. Based on this, we provide an optimization mechanism that improves those delays by resending Intra-Frames

The Service Aware Network: Balancing cost and quality for Social Multimedia Communication

This article explores the notion that a ‘service-aware’ network will help in the cost-effective delivery of social communication between communities, when it is enriched by high quality video and audio. While the concept of dynamically managing network components to balance cost and quality of service is not at all new, the paper explains how future plausible use cases for social multimedia communication prompt four key requirements for a new type of service-aware network. A brief summary is then provided of current research into some of the new capabilities needed to deliver these requirements: Quality of Experience Modelling, Dynamic Network Configuration, and Composition in the Network. Finally, an overview is given of a programme of experiments and trials which are being carried out to demonstrate the applicability and scalability of the service-aware network to real services based on the aforementioned use cases

Enabling 'Togetherness' in High-Quality Domestic Video Conferencing

Low-cost video conferencing systems have provided an existence proof for the value of video communication in a home setting. At the same time, current systems have a number of fundamental limitations that inhibit more general social interactions among multiple groups of participants. In our work, we describe the development, implementation and evaluation of a domestic video conferencing system that is geared to providing true 'togetherness' among conference pa

Automatic Generation of Video Narratives from Shared UGC

This paper introduces an evaluated approach to the automatic generation of video narratives from user generated content gathered in a shared repository. In the context of social events, end-users record video material with their personal cameras and upload the content to a common repository. Video narrative techniques, implemented using Narrative Structure Language (NSL) and ShapeShifting Media, are employed to automatically generate movies recounting the event. Such movies are personalized according to the preferences expressed by each individual end-user, for each individual viewing. This paper describes our prototype narrative system, MyVideos, deployed as a web application, and reports on its evaluation for one specific use case: assembling stories of a school concert by parents, relatives and friends. The evaluations carried out through focus groups, interviews and field trials, in the Netherlands and UK, provided validating results and further insights into this approach

Automatic Generation of Video Narratives from Shared UGC

This paper introduces an evaluated approach to the automatic generation of video narratives from user generated content gathered in a shared repository. In the context of social events, end-users record video material with their personal cameras and upload the content to a common repository. Video narrative techniques, implemented using Narrative Structure Language (NSL) and ShapeShifting Media, are employed to automatically generate movies recounting the event. Such movies are personalized according to the preferences expressed by each individual end-user, for each individual viewing. This paper describes our prototype narrative system, MyVideos, deployed as a web application, and reports on its evaluation for one specific use case: assembling stories of a school concert by parents, relatives and friends. The evaluations carried out through focus groups, interviews and field trials, in the Netherlands and UK, provided validating results and further insights into this approach