Moving Multimedia Simulations into the Cloud: a Cost-Effective Solution

Researchers often demand bursts of computing power to quickly obtain the results of certain simulation activities. Multimedia communication simulations usually belong to such category. They may require several days on a generic PC to test a comprehensive set of conditions depending on the complexity of the scenario. This paper proposes to use a cloud computing framework to accelerate these simulations and, consequently, research activities, while at the same time reducing the overall costs. A practical simulation example is shown, representative of a typical simulation of H.264/AVC video communications over a wireless channel. This work shows that, by means of a commercial cloud computing provider, the gains of the proposed technique compared to more traditional solutions using dedicated computers can be significant in terms of speed and cost reductio

Natural Right, Providence, and Order: Frédéric Bastiat's Laissez-Faire

The paper suggests that Bastiat’s theory of interests, harmony, and the State is rooted in a particular conception of Natural Right, in which the Lockeans and thomistic streams of thought meet. But it also suggests that Bastiat’s interpretation of the role that Providence plays in human events is not able to give a sustainable theory of liberal order. The paper also considers the criticisms to Bastiat’s economic and political theory coming from exponents of classical liberalism, from the Austrians, and from Catholic thinkers of that time, such as L. Taparelli d’Azeglio and M. Liberatore. The conclusion is that although the economic theory of Bastiat is by now obsolete from the conceptual point of view, his political theory and his criticism of the state do remain extraordinarily topical. Cet article suggère que les théories des intérêts, de l’harmonie et de l’Etat de Bastiat sont ancrées dans une conception particulière du droit naturel au confluent des pensées lockéenne et thomiste. Cependant, il suggère aussi que l’interprétation que donne Bastiat du rôle de la Providence dans les affaires humaines ne débouche pas sur une théorie recevable de l’ordre libéral. L’article examine aussi les critiques qu’adressent les partisans du libéralisme classique-tels que les économistes autrichiens, les penseurs catholiques de l’époque comme L. Taparelli d’Azeglio et M. Liberatore-à l’égard des théories économiques et politiques de Bastiat. L’article conclut que le caractère obsolète des théories de Bastiat d’un point de vue conceptuel ne remet pas en cause la singulière actualité de sa théorie politique et de sa critique de l’Etat

Foveated Video Streaming for Cloud Gaming

Good user experience with interactive cloud-based multimedia applications, such as cloud gaming and cloud-based VR, requires low end-to-end latency and large amounts of downstream network bandwidth at the same time. In this paper, we present a foveated video streaming system for cloud gaming. The system adapts video stream quality by adjusting the encoding parameters on the fly to match the player's gaze position. We conduct measurements with a prototype that we developed for a cloud gaming system in conjunction with eye tracker hardware. Evaluation results suggest that such foveated streaming can reduce bandwidth requirements by even more than 50% depending on parametrization of the foveated video coding and that it is feasible from the latency perspective.Comment: Submitted to: IEEE 19th International Workshop on Multimedia Signal Processin

The Moral Order of Classical Liberalism

In the years following the Second World War an intense debate developed among political philosophers concerning what was thought to be a profound crisis of political theory. This lively debate contained a number of interesting criticisms of liberalism, which was considered partly responsible for not only the crisis of political theory but also the state of decline in Western civilisation, as witnessed by war and totalitarianism. Beyond the extent to which they seem relevant or convincing today, these criticisms formed an important part of contemporary political philosophy and identify a number of unresolved issues within the liberal tradition. They therefore represent an interesting starting point in investigating how a revival of liberalism occurred in the post-war years; and more generally when trying to better understand liberalism, that is, a tradition of thought as rich as it is diverse – and for this reason often contradictory. The purpose of this chapter is to radically challenge the thesis of liberalism’s responsibility for the “ethical crisis” of Western civilisation and to argue that the classical liberalism of the twentieth century is a political philosophy that confronts these issues by giving them a new vision and definition, thus opening a new important page in the philosophy of politics. Here I attempt to analyse how classical liberal theory, far from being a relativist position, is an effort to elaborate on a political philosophy which offers a response to the classic questions of that discipline

Comparing temporal behavior of fast objective video quality measures on a large-scale database

In many application scenarios, video quality assessment is required to be fast and reasonably accurate. The characterisation of objective algorithms by subjective assessment is well established but limited due to the small number of test samples. Verification using large-scale objectively annotated databases provides a complementary solution. In this contribution, three simple but fast measures are compared regarding their agreement on a large-scale database. In contrast to subjective experiments, not only sequence-wise but also framewise agreement can be analyzed. Insight is gained into the behavior of the measures with respect to 5952 different coding configurations of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). Consistency within a video sequence is analyzed as well as across video sequences. The results show that the occurrence of discrepancies depends mostly on the configured coding structure and the source content. The detailed observations stimulate questions on the combined usage of several video quality measures for encoder optimization

Riflessioni sul potere. Un confronto tra Bruno Leoni e Michael Foucault

Bruno Leoni e Michel Foucault sono stati senza dubbio due pensatori diversi, e i loro destini non si sono incrociati. Eppure, ferme restando delle importanti differenze, entrambi riflettevano su una dimensione del potere che non fosse (solo) quella statale, ma che partisse dagli individui e dai loro rapporti, dalle loro relazioni. Muovevano entrambi da una forte insoddisfazione per il concetto di sovranità, per la teoria del contrattualismo e per la concezione formalistica del diritto. Erano entrambi convinti che si dovesse guardare ai reali rapporti tra individui per comprendere cosa sia il potere, e che si dovesse partire “dal basso”, dalle manifestazioni concrete e individuali (o locali, per usare la terminologia foucaultiana) del potere per capire cosa sia la società e come sia possibile comprendere, analizzare, dare ragione del problema dell’ordine sociale. Nessuno dei due ha scritto un libro organico sul potere, e nessuno dei due ci ha lasciato una teoria compiuta del potere. Entrambi invece si sono concentrati sul funzionamento del potere, su cosa esso produce e su cosa emerge dal potere inteso come relazione tra uomini. In questo senso, pur partendo spesso da presupposti diversi, essi ragionano per tanti versi intorno allo stesso problema, e ci offrono una rappresentazione del potere per alcuni aspetti convergente e una metodologia di analisi che ha interessanti punti di contatto. Una metodologia di analisi forte e innovativa, capace di gettare una luce nuova sullo studio della politica e di alcuni dei suoi concetti chiave, e capace di ribaltare la concezione classica del diritto e della sovranità

Crisi e rinascita del liberalismo classico

Dopo una lunga crisi, che ne aveva non soltanto deteriorato l’immagine ma soprattutto snaturato le fondamenta, il liberalismo, a partire dagli anni Quaranta, rinasce come una teoria politica capace di dare una risposta forte e innovativa ai problemi della società. L’intento di questo lavoro è dunque cercare di capire in cosa consista la filosofia politica del liberalismo classico e in che termini la sua rinascita, che talora coincide con la riscoperta di radici dimenticate, configuri anche una risposta al problema dell’“ordine politico buono” e una ricerca dei modi in cui perseguirlo. Nella ricostruzione di tale percorso – che prende le mosse da alcune critiche al liberalismo come corresponsabile dei mali della “modernità” – i passaggi chiave sono rappresentati dall’analisi della crisi e della trasformazione della teoria liberale, dalla riflessione sulla natura e sulle cause del totalitarismo, e dalla chiarificazione del controverso legame tra liberalismo e democrazia. Muovendo da questi temi gli esponenti del liberalismo classico configurano così un modello di ‘ordine spontaneo’ che, rifiutando di identificare la politica con lo stato e con le scelte collettive, giunge a mettere in discussione il ruolo della coercizione nella vita politica