I'm not blinking(It is hard though, my eyes have gotten real dry over the last 15 months of not blinking). Multimedia Monitor. I found it. Your article must be in the July issue, and not on the Web yet. The June letter is chucked full of info. Cube filed for 7 pattens so far this year, compared to 2 for all of last year. Here's Mpeg-4, Mpeg-7 as a sample.........................................................
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MPEG 4 to Usher in 'Video Objects' Era
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Digital video technology is about to make another quantum leap in versatility with the coming standardization of MPEG 4 and its use of object-based coding.
The new standard will have the most dramatic impact on the post production community, which will soon be able to manipulate video images as discrete objects, rather than as pixels on a frame. Artists will be able to alter specific pieces of a video image or remove them altogether. A glass on a table, for example, can be recolored or expanded without affecting other picture elements because the glass will have its own coded representation.
The current MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 standards treat video as a series of frames. Editors looking to manipulate those frames can identify the specific digital code that separates one frame from another, although this can become problematic when interframe compression methods are employed.
MPEG 4 treats a video image as a series of digital objects, each of which can be isolated and manipulated independently.
"The paradigm has shifted from coding frames to coding individual objects," said Ali Tabatabai, director of Tektronix' [TEK] digital video research group. "Rather than have scenes coded as frames, you have scenes composed of various audio/video objects that can be added or removed dynamically."
MPEG 4 does the same thing for audio. Instead of a single audio stream containing background noise, music, sound effects and dialogue, each audio source is assigned its own coded representation. Tabatabai uses the example of a scene on a train with two people talking to highlight the video and audio capabilities of MPEG 4. A producer would be able to eliminate another train passing by in the background along with its associated audio without affecting the other digital objects in the scene.
MPEG 4 is currently in the Working Draft stage of the International Standards Organization (ISO). Tabatabai expects a Committee Draft by November 1997, and an International Standard by November 1998. In most cases, however, manufacturers and software developers begin to deliver products long before the final standard is adopted, meaning video professionals could begin to see MPEG 4 -like products early next year.
In addition to video image manipulation, MPEG 4 could be used as a database and asset management tool. Operators could find it easier to search for specific clips based on an objects' shape, texture or other definer. Most video database tools rely on text-based descriptions of footage.
The MPEG 4 standardization effort began more than three years ago as a means to efficiently compress video to ultra-low data rates for such uses as mobile video phones and other wireless devices. Initial drafts called for rates of 64 kbps through object-based coding.
Tabatabai said manufacturers like Tektronix picked up on the possibilities of object coding as a post-production tool and quickly proposed two additional levels: 64-385 kbps, and 385 kbps to 4 Mbps. These rates are not "set in stone," Tabatabai said, and there is the possibility that even higher rates could be added before the draft recommendation is issued in November. Tabatabai said the current 4 Mbps rate is high enough for most video applications, although he expects even higher bit rates to allow MPEG 4 to be used for contribution quality in a few years.
"As people see the potential of new tools and functionality that MPEG 4 provides, bit rates may increase to levels that are more appropriate to post-production applications," he said.
Currently, most post production professionals who are willing to work with compressed images are comfortable with the 50 Mbps rate that is provided in the DV 4:2:2 profile, although the MPEG 4:2:2 ML@MP studio profile is said to provide a suitable image as low as 18 Mbps.
Tabatabai said that because MPEG 4 offers a higher quality signal at lower data rates, it might not be necessary to achieve an MPEG 2 data rate to maintain the same quality signal.Essentially, MPEG 4 will specify how to transmit an audio/visual object.
A future standard, MPEG 7, will attempt to standardize the way objects are described, making it easier for operators to identify and isolate them. MPEG 7 is expected to provide various levels of description to identify objects by shape or texture, and may even offer a higher level of semantics to include some kind of relational description. This will allow operators to remove all objects in front of another object, for example.
Engineers from various organizations are drawing up a list of requirements for MPEG 7, with a call for proposals scheduled for November 1998. A standard is expected by the year 2000.
"Think of MPEG 4 and 7 as taking the video world from pixels and frames to objects and databases," said Bruce Murdock, vice president of technology at Tektronix's Video and Networking Division. "Tektronix is working to connect the VRML and MPEG worlds."
(Tektronix, Jerome J. Meyer, 26600 S.W. Parkway Ave., Wilsonville, Ore. 97070, 503/627-4744) |
