Skip to main content
Log in

Metadata-driven multimedia transcoding for distance learning

  • Regular Paper
  • Published:
Multimedia Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Advances in multimedia processing capabilities of electronic devices and the rapid growth of the Internet have contributed to the proliferation of collaborative applications such as distance learning (DL) webcasting. A key technical challenge in such DL systems is providing access to rich media content to any user regardless of device capabilities, network heterogeneity, and personal preferences. A novel MPEG-21-based adaptation architecture is presented to overcome these challenges by performing (1) application layer transcoding that adapts the presentation format of DL content to match device media decoding capabilities and user-desired modality, (2) bitstream transcoding to adapt multimedia to match device processing capabilities and encoding bit-rate supported by the network. Experimental results indicate that the proposed system delivers personalized DL content to meet end-user environmental restrictions with small transcoding overhead.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Apple’s open-source darwin streaming server, http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/streaming/

  2. Extensible markup language (xml) 1.0 (second edition) (October 2000). URL http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml, W3C Recommendation

  3. Extensible stylesheet language (xsl) version 1.0 (October 2001). http://www.w3.org/TR/xsl

  4. (2003), Information technology-generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information = ISO/IEC, Tech. Rep. 13818-7:2003

  5. (2004), Information technology-multimedia framework MPEG-21-part1: Vision, technology and strategy, Tech. Rep. TR 21000-1:2004, ISO/IEC

  6. (2004), Information technology-multimedia framework MPEG-21- part7: Digit item adaptation, Tech. Rep. TR 21000-7:2004, ISO/IEC

  7. Abdelzaher, T.F., Bhatti, N.: Web server QoS management by adaptive content delivery. In: Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Quality of Service, pp. 216–225 (1999)

  8. Aggarwal, C.C., Hinneburg, A., Keim, D.A.: On the surprising behavior of distance metrics in high dimensional space. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 1973 pp. 420–434 (2001)

  9. Almaoui M.Y. (2005) Metadata driven multimedia transcoding. Master’s thesis, University of Toronto, Canada

    Google Scholar 

  10. Baecker, R.: A principled design for scalable internet visual communications with rich media, interactivity, and structured archives. In: Proceedings of the Conference of the Centre for Advanced Studies Conference on Collaborative Research, pp. 16–29 (2003)

  11. Baecker, R., Moore, G., Zijdemans, A.: Reinventing the lecture: webcasting made interactive. In: Proceedings of HCI International, vol. 1, pp. 896–900 (2003)

  12. Bormans J., Gelissen J., Perkis A. (2003) MPEG-21: the 21st century multimedia framework. IEEE Signal Process. Mag. 20(2): 53–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Bouras C., Destounis P., Garofalakis J., et. al. (2000) Efficient web- based open and distance learning services. J. Telemat. Informat. 17(3): 213–237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Brotherton, J., Bhalodia, J., Abowd, G.: Automated capture, integration, and visualization of multiple media streams. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems, pp. 54–63 (1998)

  15. Cirillo, F., Cozzolino, A., Santo, M.D., Marsella, M., Salerno, S.: A metadata based distance learning platform. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Vol. 1, pp. 44–48 (2000)

  16. Cloete E. (2001) Electronic education system model. Comput. Educ. 36(2): 171–182

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Cranle, N., Perry, P., Murphy, L.: Perceptual quality adaptation (PQA) algorithm for 3GP and multi-tracked MPEG-4 content over wireless ip networks. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (2004)

  18. Cranley, N., Murphy, L., Perry, P.: Video adaptation: user-perceived quality-aware adaptive delivery of MPEG-4 content, In: Proceedings of the 13th international workshop on Network and operating systems support for digital audio and video, pp. 42–49 (2002)

  19. Deshpande S., Hwang J. (2001) A real-time interactive virtual classroom multimedia distance learning system. IEEE Trans. Multimedia 3(4): 432–444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Floyd, S., Handley, M., Padhye, J., Widmer, J.: Equation-based congestion control for unicast applications. In: SIGCOMM (2000)

  21. Friesen J., Tarman T. (2000) Remote high-performance visualization and collaboration. IEEE Comput. Graph. Appl. 20(4): 45–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Keesman G., Hellinghuizen R., Hoeksema F., Heideman G. (1996) Transcoding of MPEG bitstreams. Signal Process. Image Commun. 8(6): 481–500

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Kinno, A., Yonemoto, Y., Morioka, M., Etoh, M., Environment adaptive XML transformation and its application to content delivery. In: Proceedings of the Symposium of Applications and the Internet, pp. 31–36 (2003)

  24. Lemlouma, T., Layaida, M.: Adapted content delivery for different contexts. In: Proceedings of the Symposium of Applications and the Internet (2003)

  25. Lepold, K., Quality controlled temporal video adaptation. Dissertation, Institut fur Informaionstechnologie, Universitat Klagenfurt, Germany (2003)

  26. Ma, W., Bedner, I., Chang, G., Kuchinsky, A., Zhang, H.: A framework for adaptive content delivery in heterogeneous network environments. In: Proceedings of SPIE/ACM Conference on Multimedia Computing and Networking, vol. 3969, pp. 86–100 (2000)

  27. Magalhes J., Pereira F. (2004) Using MPEG standards for multimedia customization. Signal Process. Image Commun. 19(5): 437–456

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Mohan R., Smith J., Li C. (1999) Adapting multimedia internet content for universal access. IEE Trans. Multimedia 1(1): 104–114

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Muntean, C.H., McManis, J., A QoS-aware adaptive Web-based system. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Communications, vol. 4, pp. 2204–2208 (2004)

  30. Muntean, C.H.: Quality of experience-aware adaptive hypermedia system. Master’s thesis, Dublin City University (2005)

  31. Padhye J., Kurose J. (1999) Continuous-media courseware server: a study of client interactions. IEEE Internet Comput. 3(2): 65–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Pereira F., Burnett I. (2003) Universal multimedia experiences for tomorrow. IEEE Signal Process. Mag. 20(2): 63–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Pereira F., Smith J., Vetro A. (2005) Introduction to the special section on MPEG-21. IEEE Trans. Multimedia 7(3): 397–399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Preiss B. (1999) Data Structures and Algorithms with Object-Oriented Design Patterns in Java. Wiley, University of Waterloo, Waterloo

    Google Scholar 

  35. Rowe, L., Harley, D., Pletcher, P., Lawrence, S.: Bibs: a lecture webcasting system. Technical Report FCD 21000-1:2007 (2001)

  36. Shanableh T., Ghanbari M. (2000) Heterogeneous video transcoding to lower spatio-temporal resolutions and different encoding formats. IEEE Trans. Multimedia 2(2): 101–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Tsang, H., Hung, L., Ng, S.: A mulitmedia distance learning system on the internet. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, vol. 2, pp. 243–246 (1999)

  38. van Beek P. (2003) Metadata-driven multimedia access. IEEE Signal Process. Mag. 20(2): 40–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Vetro A., Christopoulos C., Sun H. (2003) Video transcoding architectures and techniques: an overview. IEEE Signal Process. Mag. 20(2): 18–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Vetro A., Timmerer C. (2005) Digital item adaptation: overview of standardization and research activities. IEEE Trans. Multimedia 7(3): 418–426

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Wu D., Hou Y., Zhu W., Zhang Y.-Q., Peha J. (2001) Streaming video over the Internet: approaches and directions. IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol. 11(3): 282–300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Zhang, H.: Adaptive content delivery: A new research area in media computing. In: Proceedings of the 2000 International Workshop on Multimedia Data Storage, Retrieval, Integration and Applications (2000)

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Azadeh Kushki.

Additional information

This work is partially supported by the Network for Effective Collaboration Technologies through Advanced Research (NECTAR). The authors would like to thank the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) at the University of Toronto for use of their resources.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Almaoui, M., Kushki, A. & Plataniotis, K.N. Metadata-driven multimedia transcoding for distance learning. Multimedia Systems 12, 505–520 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00530-006-0071-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00530-006-0071-8

Keywords