Closing the Gap: Human Factors in Cross-device Media Synchronization doi: 10.1109/JSTSP.2016.2638358

Closing the Gap: Human Factors in Cross-device Media Synchronization

IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing

    Issue Date: FEBRUARY 2017

    Volume: 11 Issue: 1

    On page(s): 0

    Print ISSN: 1932-4553

    Online ISSN: 1941-0484

    Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/JSTSP.2016.2638358

Abstract:

The continuing growth in the mobile phone arena, particularly in terms of device 

capabilities and ownership is having a transformational impact on media 

consumption. It is now possible to consider orchestrated multi-stream experiences 

delivered across many devices, rather than the playback of content from a single 

device. However, there are significant challenges in realising such a vision, 

particularly around the management of synchronicity between associated media 

streams. This is compounded by the heterogeneous nature of user devices, the 

networks upon which they operate, and the perceptions of users. This paper 

introduces IMSync, an open inter-stream synchronization framework that 

incorporates human factors to capture the quality of experience (QoE). IMSync 

adopts efficient monitoring and control mechanisms, alongside a QoE perception 

model that has been derived from a series of subjective user experiments. Based 

on an observation of lag, IMSync is able to use this model of impact to determine 

an appropriate strategy to catch-up with playback whilst minimising the potential 

detrimental impacts on a users QoE. The impact model adopts a balanced 

approach: trading off the potential impact on QoE of initiating a re-synchronization 

process compared with retaining the current levels of non-synchronicity, in order 

to maintain high levels of QoE. A series of experiments demonstrate the potential 

of the framework as a basis for enabling new, immersive media experiences.

Published in: IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing ( Volume: PP, Issue: 99 )

To read the full paper go to: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7781600/


All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Dr Mu Mu

Dr Mu has been responsible for teaching, research, and the management of several European and UK projects. He also led the R&D of the Vision online IPTV system and the Storisphere storytelling platform for prototyping and user evaluation of new designs and development of creative media, context-aware distributed systems, and web technologies.

Dr Mu's current research interests cover the topics of QoE and human factor in multimedia systems, SDN/NFV applications, media orchestration, creative media as well as social and behavioral context integration. He published over 40 research papers in prestigious international conferences and journals, including IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, IEEE Communications Magazine, IEEE Multimedia, ACM Multimedia and ACM Multimedia Systems. He regularly serves as a programme committee member or a reviewer of workshops, conferences and journals such as the Springer MMSJ, IEEE TMM, ACM MMSYS, ACM TVX, IEEE ICC, IEEE CCNC and Elsevier COMNET. Dr Mu also reviews books and project proposals.

Recent Publications

Article

1. Mu, M., Broadbent, M., Farshad, A., Hart, N., Hutchison, D., Ni, Q. and Race, N. (2016) A scalable user fairness model for adaptive video streaming over SDN-assisted future networks. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. 0733-8716.
2. Niamut, O., Mu, M., Denazis, S. and Race, N. (2016) Social telemedia: the relationship between social information and networked media. IEEE Computer Magazine. 49(5), pp. 92-97. 0018-9162.
3. Dijkstra, S., Niamut, O., Efthymiopoulos, N., Denazis, S., Race, N., Mu, M. and Taal, J. (2015) STEER: Exploring the dynamic relationship between social information and networked media through experimentation. IEEE Computer Society Special Technical Community on Social Networking E-Letter. 3(2)

Conference Proceedings

1. Sani, Y., Mu, M., Mauthe, A. and Edwards, C. (2016) A Bio-inspired HTTP-based adaptive streaming player. In: 2016 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME 2016). Seattle, USA: IEEE. (Accepted)
2. Mu, M., Simpson, S., Stokking, H. and Race, N. (2016) QoE-aware inter-stream synchronization in open N-screens cloud. In:Consumer Communications and Networking (CCNC), 2016 13th Annual IEEE. Las Vegas: IEEE. 2331-9860. (In Press)
3. Mu, M., Knowles, W. and Race, N. (2015) Improving interactive TV experience using second screen mobile applications. In: 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia. Miami, Florida: IEEE Computer Society Press. (In Press)
4. Mu, M., Simpson, S., Farshad, A. and Ni, Q. (2015) User-level fairness delivered: network resource allocation for adaptive video streaming. In: 2015 IEEE 22nd International Symposium of Quality of Service (IWQoS). USA: IEEE/ACM. (In Press)

If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with