Beyond multimedia adaptation: Quality of experience-aware multi-sensorial media delivery

Multiple sensorial media (mulsemedia) combines multiple media elements which engage three or more of human senses, and as most other media content, requires support for delivery over the existing networks. This paper proposes an adaptive mulsemedia framework (ADAMS) for delivering scalable video and sensorial data to users. Unlike existing two-dimensional joint source-channel adaptation solutions for video streaming, the ADAMS framework includes three joint adaptation dimensions: video source, sensorial source, and network optimization. Using an MPEG-7 description scheme, ADAMS recommends the integration of multiple sensorial effects (i.e., haptic, olfaction, air motion, etc.) as metadata into multimedia streams. ADAMS design includes both coarse- and fine-grained adaptation modules on the server side: mulsemedia flow adaptation and packet priority scheduling. Feedback from subjective quality evaluation and network conditions is used to develop the two modules. Subjective evaluation investigated users' enjoyment levels when exposed to mulsemedia and multimedia sequences, respectively and to study users' preference levels of some sensorial effects in the context of mulsemedia sequences with video components at different quality levels. Results of the subjective study inform guidelines for an adaptive strategy that selects the optimal combination for video segments and sensorial data for a given bandwidth constraint and user requirement. User perceptual tests show how ADAMS outperforms existing multimedia delivery solutions in terms of both user perceived quality and user enjoyment during adaptive streaming of various mulsemedia content. In doing so, it highlights the case for tailored, adaptive mulsemedia delivery over traditional multimedia adaptive transport mechanisms

Quality of experience study for multiple sensorial media delivery

Traditional video sequences make use of both visual images and audio tracks which are perceived by human eyes and ears, respectively. In order to present better ultra-reality virtual experience, the comprehensive human sensations (e.g. olfaction, haptic, gustatory, etc) needed to be exploited. In this paper, a multiple sensorial media (mulsemedia) delivery system is introduced to deliver multimedia sequences integrated with multiple media components which engage three or more of human senses such as sight, hearing, olfaction, haptic, gustatory, etc. Three sensorial effects (i.e. haptic, olfaction, and air-flowing) are selected for the purpose of demonstration. Subjective test is conducted to analyze the user perceived quality of experience of the mulsemedia service. It is concluded that the mulsemedia sequences can partly mask the decreased movie quality. Additionally the most preferable sensorial effect is haptic, followed by air-flowing and olfaction.This work was supported in part by Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnership programme

Probing Form Factors in Top Quark Pair Production at e−e+e^-e^+ Colliders

We describe how to probe new physics through large CP violation effects and non--standard Z-t-t couplings via the scattering process e^-e^+ -> t tbar. [Talk presented at the Workshop on Physics and Experiments with Linear $e^+e^-$ Colliders, Waikoloa, Hawaii, 26-30 April 1993.]Comment: 4 pages, TeXsis, MSUTH 93/0

Are Black Holes Elementary Particles?

Quantum black holes are the smallest and heaviest conceivable elementary particles. They have a microscopic size but a macroscopic mass. Several fundamental types have been constructed with some remarkable properties. Quantum black holes in the neighborhood of the Galaxy could resolve the paradox of ultra-high energy cosmic rays detected in Earth's atmosphere. They may also play a role as dark matter in cosmology.Comment: Lecture delivered in Conference on Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Quantum Field Theory: 75 Years since Solvay, 27 -29 November 2008, Nanyang Executive Centre, Singapore. 10 page

Decomposition of Triebel-Lizorkin and Besov spaces in the context of Laguerre expansions

A pair of dual frames with almost exponentially localized elements (needlets) are constructed on \RR_+^d based on Laguerre functions. It is shown that the Triebel-Lizorkin and Besov spaces induced by Laguerre expansions can be characterized in terms of respective sequence spaces that involve the needlet coefficients.Comment: 42 page

Non-Fermi liquid states in the pressurized CeCu2(Si1−xGex)2CeCu_2(Si_{1-x}Ge_x)_2 system: two critical points

In the archetypal strongly correlated electron superconductor CeCu$_2$Si$_2$ and its Ge-substituted alloys CeCu$_2$(Si$_{1-x}$Ge$_{x}$)$_2$ two quantum phase transitions -- one magnetic and one of so far unknown origin -- can be crossed as a function of pressure \cite{Yuan 2003a}. We examine the associated anomalous normal state by detailed measurements of the low temperature resistivity ($\rho$) power law exponent $\alpha$. At the lower critical point (at $p_{c1}$, $1\leq\alpha\leq 1.5$) $\alpha$ depends strongly on Ge concentration $x$ and thereby on disorder level, consistent with a Hlubina-Rice-Rosch scenario of critical scattering off antiferromagnetic fluctuations. By contrast, $\alpha$ is independent of $x$ at the upper quantum phase transition (at $p_{c2}$, $\alpha\simeq 1$), suggesting critical scattering from local or Q=0 modes, in agreement with a density/valence fluctuation approach.Comment: 4 pages, including 4 figures. New results added. Significant changes on the text and Fig.