MPEG 4

1
MPEG 4
Shaojie Zhang Anjum Gupta Dept. of Computer
Science and Engineering
2
Outline

• Overview
• Technical Detail
• Industry and Market
• Conclusion

3
Overview

• MPEG-1 - Error free environments
• MPEG-2 - Broadcast TV (SD and HD)
• MPEG-4 - Object based coding
• MPEG-7 - Multimedia description
• MPEG-21 - Seven element initiative for
  multimedia deployment

4
What is MPEG-4

• An open toolbox to build bitstreams and decoders
  for multimedia content
• Synthetic interactive graphics content
• To accommodate various user devices
• Lower bit rate encoding

5
MPEG 4 Basic Approach

• Object Based Encoding
• MPEG-4 audiovisual scenes are composed of several
  media objects.
• Still objects (e.g. fixed background)
• Video objects (e.g. a talking person)
• Audio objects

6
Encoding Example
7
An example of an MPEG-4 Scene
8
Scene Description Format

• An MPEG-4 scene structure is represented as a
  DAG.
• Each node is a media object.
• Multiplexed with the media objects.

9
Flexibility within MPEG-4

• Various algorithms to handle special cases.
• The stream is made of atomic units called Video
  Objects (VOs).
• Audio Visual Objects (AVOs) are combined to
  create a scene.

10
Bit rate variability

• Generic coder is extended by adding Shape input.

11
Coding Tools and Algorithms
VLBV (Very Low Bit-rate Video) core can be
extended by adding more information.
12
MPEG-4 Encoding
13
Decoding
14
An Application
15
Companies having MPEG-4 products

• Index of Companies
• Ahead Software
• Amphion Semiconductor
• Apple Computers
• Bitmanagement Software GmbH
• Dicas Digital Image Coding GmbH
• DivXNetworks, Inc.
• Emblaze Research
• Envivio
• Equator Technologies, Inc.
• Fraunhofer Institute IIS-A
• Hantro Products Oy
• Harmonic Inc.
• iVAST Inc.

1. Nextreaming Corporation
2. Octaga AS
3. Philips Electronics
4. Prodys
5. Sci-worx GmbH
6. Sorenson Media
7. Soundball, Inc.
8. Toshiba
9. Tvia, Inc.
10. VBrick Systems, Inc.
11. VCS Video Communication Systems AG
12. VideoSpheres Inc.
13. Xilinx Inc.

16
MPEG Market Penetration
US Market Penetration growth from year 0
(introduction) 10 (From The Yankee Group).
17
MPEG Media Distribution
US Video-On-Demand Subscriber Forecasts (From
The Yankee Group)
18
MPEG 4 Vs Other Technologies
19
Conclusion

• MPEG-4 enables very low bit-rate multimedia
  communications.
• MPEG-4 is a dynamic standard, that is
  continuously being improved.
• Is being accepted in the industry applications.
• Expanding demand in the market.

20
References

• ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 N4668
• ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11N2826
• ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11N5504
• MPEG-4 Industry Forum (http//www.m4if.org)

21
Acknowledgement

• Dr. Wo Chang, NIST, U.S.
• Dr. Kai-Kuang Ma, NTU, Singapore